Indirect Questions in Swedish

In Brief

An indirect question places a question inside a larger sentence: Jag vet inte om hon kommer (“I don’t know whether she is coming”) and Kan du berätta var han bor? (“Can you tell me where he lives?”). Use om for a yes/no question and a question word for an information question. The embedded question follows subordinate-clause word order: the subject normally comes before the finite verb, and inte comes before that verb according to the BIFF rule.

Overview

An indirect question is a question presented as part of another clause rather than asked on its own. It may express uncertainty (Jag vet inte …), report what somebody asked (Hon frågade …), or make a request sound less abrupt (Kan du säga …?). The Swedish term is indirekt fråga.

This B1 topic builds directly on Swedish subordinate clauses. A subordinate clause (bisats) is a clause that depends on another part of the sentence. In Jag undrar varför hon inte ringde, the words varför hon inte ringde form the subordinate clause. Its finite verb—the verb marked for tense—is ringde. Because this is a subordinate clause, inte stands before ringde.

English has a similar contrast between direct “Where does he live?” and indirect “Do you know where he lives?” This is helpful, but the systems are not identical. In particular, Swedish learners must pay attention to BIFF word order and to som after a question word that itself represents the subject.

How It Works

Two ways to introduce the embedded question

Start by deciding what kind of direct question lies underneath the sentence.

Underlying question	Connector	Indirect question
Yes/no: Kommer hon?	om (“whether/if”)	Jag vet inte om hon kommer.
Information: Var bor han?	the same question word	Jag undrar var han bor.

A yes/no question has no question word and can be answered with ja or nej. In an indirect question, om introduces the alternatives: Vi får se om tåget är i tid (“We’ll see whether the train is on time”). Do not use att here; att introduces a statement, not an unresolved yes/no question.

An information question keeps its question word or phrase:

• var — where
• när — when
• varför — why
• hur — how
• vem — who
• vad — what
• vilken/vilket/vilka — which
• hur mycket/hur många — how much/how many

Thus Hur mycket kostar det? becomes Vet du hur mycket det kostar?

Change direct-question order to subordinate-clause order

A Swedish direct question often places the finite verb before the subject. An indirect question normally restores subject-before-verb order.

Type	Pattern	Example
Direct yes/no question	verb + subject	Kommer hon i morgon?
Indirect yes/no question	om + subject + verb	Jag undrar om hon kommer i morgon.
Direct information question	question word + verb + subject	Var bor han?
Indirect information question	question word + subject + verb	Jag vet var han bor.

English speakers can often rely on the same broad change: “Where does he live?” becomes “I know where he lives.” However, do not carry English do/does/did into Swedish. Swedish forms both the direct and indirect versions without a separate “do” auxiliary.

Apply BIFF when there is a sentence adverb

BIFF is a common memory aid: I Bisats kommer Inte Före det Finita verbet—“In a subordinate clause, inte comes before the finite verb.” The rule also covers many sentence adverbs, words that comment on the whole message, such as aldrig (“never”), kanske (“perhaps”), verkligen (“really”), and fortfarande (“still”).

Direct question	Indirect question
Varför ringde hon inte?	Jag undrar varför hon inte ringde.
Har de aldrig varit här?	Vet du om de aldrig har varit här?
Kan han verkligen komma?	Hon frågade om han verkligen kunde komma.

With several verbs, the sentence adverb goes before the finite verb, not before the infinitive or participle: om hon inte kan komma, varför de aldrig har sett filmen.

Use som when the question word is the subject

The subject is the person or thing that performs the action or is described. If vem, vad, or a longer question phrase fills that role in the embedded question, Swedish normally adds som.

Direct question	Role of question word	Indirect question
Vem kommer?	vem is the subject	Jag undrar vem som kommer.
Vad hände?	vad is the subject	Vet du vad som hände?
Vilken buss går till centrum?	vilken buss is the subject	Kan du säga vilken buss som går till centrum?
Vem träffade du?	du is the subject; vem receives the action	Jag undrar vem du träffade.

This distinction is crucial. In vem som ringde, the unknown person made the call. In vem du ringde, du made the call and the unknown person received it. English uses “who” in both structures and therefore gives an English-speaking learner no visible reminder to add som.

Do not add another subject after subject-question-word som: vem som kommer, not vem som han kommer. Here vem already supplies the missing subject.

The larger sentence controls the overall shape

The main clause may be a statement or a question. That does not change the embedded clause’s word order:

• Jag vet var hon arbetar. — statement
• Vet du var hon arbetar? — question
• Kan du fråga om hon arbetar i dag? — question

Only the whole sentence determines punctuation. Jag undrar när bussen går. is grammatically a statement, so it normally ends with a period. Vet du när bussen går? is a direct request for an answer and ends with a question mark.

Common frames include:

• Jag undrar … — I wonder …
• Jag vet inte … — I don’t know …
• Vet du …? — Do you know …?
• Kan du säga/berätta …? — Can you say/tell …?
• Hon frågade … — She asked …
• Vi får se … — We’ll see …
• Det beror på … — It depends on …

Examples in Context

Swedish	English	Note
Jag vet inte om hon kommer.	I don’t know whether she is coming.	om introduces a yes/no issue.
Kan du berätta var han bor?	Can you tell me where he lives?	Subject before verb: han bor.
Han frågade när vi åker.	He asked when we are leaving.	The planned departure is still relevant.
Jag undrar varför hon inte ringde.	I wonder why she didn’t call.	BIFF: inte before ringde.
Vet du om apoteket fortfarande är öppet?	Do you know whether the pharmacy is still open?	fortfarande precedes the finite verb.
Vi får se hur lång tid det tar.	We’ll see how long it takes.	A longer question phrase introduces the clause.
Hon ville veta vem som hade skickat mejlet.	She wanted to know who had sent the email.	vem is the subject, so use som.
Minns du vem du skickade mejlet till?	Do you remember who you sent the email to?	du is the subject; no som.
Ingen förstod vad som hade hänt.	Nobody understood what had happened.	vad represents the subject.
Kan du visa mig vilken knapp jag ska trycka på?	Can you show me which button I should press?	jag is the subject; vilken knapp is the object.
De frågade om vi kunde komma lite tidigare.	They asked whether we could come a little earlier.	A reported yes/no question.
Jag är inte säker på var mötet ska hållas.	I’m not sure where the meeting will be held.	Indirect question after a preposition and adjective.
Vet någon hur man loggar in?	Does anyone know how to log in?	Generic man means “one/you/people.”
Det beror på hur mycket biljetterna kostar.	It depends on how much the tickets cost.	Indirect question complements på.

Common Mistakes

Keeping direct-question inversion

• Wrong: Jag undrar var bor han.
• Right: Jag undrar var han bor.
• Why: The embedded part is a subordinate clause. Put the subject han before the finite verb bor.

Putting inte after the finite verb

• Wrong: Vet du varför hon ringde inte?
• Right: Vet du varför hon inte ringde?
• Why: BIFF places inte before the finite verb in a subordinate clause.

Using att instead of om

• Wrong: Jag vet inte att han kommer. when the intended meaning is “I don’t know whether he is coming.”
• Right: Jag vet inte om han kommer.
• Why: om introduces an unresolved yes/no question. Jag vet inte att han kommer has a different and unusual meaning: “I am not aware of the fact that he is coming.”

Omitting som after a subject question word

• Wrong: Vet du vem kommer?
• Right: Vet du vem som kommer?
• Why: vem is the unknown subject of kommer, so embedded Swedish requires som.

Adding som when another subject is present

• Wrong: Jag undrar vem som du träffade.
• Right: Jag undrar vem du träffade.
• Why: du is already the subject. The unknown vem is the person you met, so no som is needed.

Using a question mark after every indirect question

• Wrong: Jag vet inte när de öppnar?
• Right: Jag vet inte när de öppnar.
• Why: The whole sentence is a statement, despite containing an unresolved question. Use a question mark when the main clause asks something: Vet du när de öppnar?

Usage Notes

Indirect wording is often polite, but it is not automatically formal. Var ligger stationen? is a perfectly normal direct question. Ursäkta, kan du säga var stationen ligger? sounds softer because it frames the request through kan du säga. In everyday conversation, both forms are common.

Om can mean either “whether/if” or “if” in a condition. Compare Jag vet inte om hon kommer (“I don’t know whether she is coming”) with Jag stannar hemma om det regnar (“I’ll stay home if it rains”). Meaning and the larger construction usually make the role clear. In careful English translation, “whether” often highlights the question meaning more clearly than “if,” but Swedish normally uses om for both.

Swedish tense follows the intended time perspective. A past reporting verb does not force every embedded verb into the past regardless of meaning. Han frågade när vi åker can be natural if the departure is still in the future from the speaker’s current viewpoint. Han frågade när vi skulle åka presents the departure as future relative to that past moment, while Han frågade när vi åkte refers to a past or habitual departure according to context. Choose the tense for the timeline you mean rather than mechanically copying English tense backshift.

Prepositions often remain at the end, as they commonly do elsewhere in Swedish: Vem pratade hon med? becomes Jag undrar vem hon pratade med. More formal alternatives may be possible in some contexts, but preposition stranding is ordinary and natural.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Embedded questions can occupy different sentence positions

Most examples use an indirect question after the main verb, which is the safest neutral pattern. It can also act as the subject or be moved to the front for emphasis:

• Vad han egentligen menade är oklart. — What he actually meant is unclear.
• Om de tänker acceptera erbjudandet vet jag inte. — Whether they intend to accept the offer, I don’t know.

When an element other than the subject occupies the first position of a Swedish main clause, main-clause V2 order places the finite verb second. That is why the second example has vet jag, not jag vet. The fronted embedded clause still keeps its own subordinate-clause order: de tänker.

Some forms sit between questions and exclamations

Question-word clauses can express degree or emotional emphasis rather than request missing information:

• Du anar inte hur glad jag blev. — You have no idea how happy I became.
• Det är otroligt vad tiden går fort. — It is incredible how quickly time passes.

These have the same embedded word-order principles, but their communicative purpose is exclamatory. Recognizing this helps when literal English “question” translations sound awkward.

Huruvida is a formal alternative

Huruvida means “whether” and is chiefly associated with formal, written, administrative, or analytical style: Rapporten diskuterar huruvida åtgärden är effektiv (“The report discusses whether the measure is effective”). In normal conversation, om is usually the natural choice. The phrase huruvida … eller inte can make two alternatives explicit, but B1 learners do not need it for everyday speech.

Indirect questions are not the same as indirect speech generally

Hon sa att hon var trött reports a statement and uses att. Hon frågade om jag var trött reports a yes/no question and uses om. Hon frågade varför jag var trött reports an information question and keeps varför. This three-way contrast is useful when moving on to fuller work with reported speech.

Practice Tips

1. Transform pairs aloud. Start with a direct question such as När börjar filmen? Then add two frames: Vet du när filmen börjar? and Jag undrar när filmen börjar. This trains the change from verb–subject to subject–verb order.
2. Mark three items in each clause. Underline the subject, circle the finite verb, and box inte or another sentence adverb. Check that an indirect question gives you subject + inte + finite verb: hon inte kan.
3. Drill the subject test for som. Ask who performs the action. If the answer is the unknown vem/vad/vilken …, use som: vem som ringde. If a stated subject performs it, do not: vem hon ringde.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Subordinate Clauses — provides the subordinate-clause word order and BIFF pattern used in every indirect question.