Swedish: An Essential Grammar, 2nd edition

5.11
5
Pronouns
90

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4 Notice that som is inserted after vad, vilken etc. + noun when this is the subject
of a subordinate clause (indirect question):
Jag undrar vad (O) han (S) gör.
I wonder what he’s doing.
Jag undrar vad (O) som (S) händer.
I wonder what’s happening.
Jag undrar vem som (S) kommer.
I wonder who’s coming.
Jag undrar vilka böcker (S) som är dina.
I wonder which books are yours.
5 Notice the use of vilken, etc., in exclamations:
Vilken härlig dag!
What a lovely day!
Vilket hemskt väder!
What awful weather!
6 Notice other interrogatives using hur: hur länge? (how long?); hur långt? (how
far?); hur mycket? (how much?); hur många (how many?); hur dags? (what time?).
Indefinite pronouns
Indefinite pronouns include:
Non-neuter
Neuter
Plural
någon
något
några
some, any, someone,
anything
ingen
inget
inga
no, none, no-one,
nothing
all
allt
alla
all, everything
varje
varje
each, every
varenda
vartenda
each and every
var
vart
each, every
var och en
vart och ett
each and every one
varannan
vartannat
varandra
every other, each
other
vem som 
vad som 
vilka som 
anyone at all,
helst
helst
helst
anything at all
man
one, you
Possessive form of man:
ens
one’s
Object form of man:
en
one, you
Reflexive form of man:
sig
oneself (see 5.3)
Reflexive possessive form of man:
sin
one’s own (see 5.6)
Note also the pronominal adverbs:
någonsin
sometime, ever
någonstans
somewhere
5.12
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Indefinite
pronouns
91

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Notes:
1 (a) Ingen etc./inte någon, etc., are alternatives as object in a main clause with
simple tense (present, past):
De (S) såg ingen/inte någon (O) i skogen.
They saw no-one in the forest.
(b) Inte någon, etc., must be used as the object in a main clause with complex tense
(perfect, pluperfect, modal + main verb) or in a subordinate clause. When inte någon
constructions are found in the subordinate clause, inte precedes the finite verb (see
also 12.7.5):
Jag har inte sett någon (O) i skogen.
I haven’t seen anyone in the forest.
Jag kan inte se någon (O).
I can’t see anyone.
De sa, att de inte hade sett någon (O) i skogen.
They said that they hadn’t seen anyone in the forest.
2 (a) All, etc., may be used with or without a definite article on the noun following in
much the same way as in English:
Alla böcker är dyra.
All books are expensive.
Alla böckerna hade sålts.
All the books had been sold.
(b) English ‘all’ = ‘the whole (of)’ is usually rendered by hela + the noun with end
article singular:
Har du läst hela boken?
Have you read all (of) the book?
(c) Allt corresponds to ‘everything’; alla corresponds to ‘everyone’:
Han säljer allt till alla.
He sells everything to everyone.
3 Varje (indeclinable), and var/vart are synonymous but not always interchangeable:
(a) Varje is common in spoken Swedish, and is used pronominally only after a preposition:
Fem påsar med 12 kg i varje.
Five bags with 12 kilos in each.
Varje påse innehåller 12 kg.
Each (bag) holds 12 kilos.
(b) Var/vart is preferred before ordinals:
Han kommer var tredje vecka.
He comes every third week/every three weeks.
4 Varenda/vartenda and var och en/vart och ett are more emphatic than varje/var.
(a) Varenda is used attributively before the indefinite form of the noun:
Vartenda fel ska rättas.
Every single error must be corrected.
(b) Var och en is often followed by av + plural noun or pronoun:
Var och en (av oss) gick hem till sig. Each one (of us) went home.
Var och en av bilarna var rostig.
Every single one of the cars was rusty.
5 Varandra is restricted in meaning to ‘one another/each other’:
Vi känner inte varandra.
We don’t know each other.
6 (a) Man is used far more commonly in Swedish than the rather stilted English ‘one’.
It occasionally replaces jag. Note the form en is used as an object or after prepositions: