In this lesson, we will build on what we’ve already learned regarding sentence structure and transform those statements, which you should know by heart by now, into questions.
Question words
In the monologue, we got to know three question words:
To construct a question with these, we put them in the beginning of a sentence, followed by a verb. Remember Swedish has the so-called V2 rule, which states that the verb has to come in second place.
These three words are definitely not the only ones and a few others, which could come in handy, are:
Yes/no questions
Although it’s important to put the verb in second place, a question without a question word needs the verb to go in first place, just like in English.
The one and only du
Where other languages differentiate between how they address different sorts of people, Swedes address everyone with the pronoun du. There is no real equivalent to German Sie or French Vous in Swedish. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking to your naked best friend, the mailman, the prime minister or me. You will use first names and du with everyone – except for the royal family. We address them in a more traditional manner with the help of titles.