Breakdown of Ingen vet vem som skapar gatukonsten.
vem
who
veta
to know (facts, information)
ingen
no, none (en-word)
som
who / which / that (relative pronoun)
Questions & Answers about Ingen vet vem som skapar gatukonsten.
Why do we need the word som after vem here?
This is the core rule for indirect questions in Swedish. When a question word like vem (who), vad (what), or vilken (which) is the subject of an embedded clause, you must add som. Since vem is the one doing the creating in this clause, som is mandatory.
Would I still use som if the sentence was 'No one knows who I saw'?
No, you only insert som when the question word is the subject of the embedded clause. If you say 'who I saw', the subject is 'I' (jag) and 'who' is the object. So it would just be Ingen vet vem jag såg without som.
If I wanted to say 'No one knows who doesn't create the street art', where would inte go?
It would go right before the verb: Ingen vet vem som inte skapar gatukonsten. Because the indirect question is a subordinate clause, Swedish uses the BIFF rule. This means sentence adverbs like inte must come before the conjugated verb, unlike in main clauses where they come after.
How is the word gatukonsten formed? Why isn't it 'gatakonsten'?