Vart versus var: two words for where

Okay, so we said we need to repeat, always, always, we need to go back and repeat words, and that's how we learn. We don't learn by brute memorization, we learn by familiarizing ourselves to something, by being exposed to it. So let's repeat. So what does "vad" mean?

And this is the Swedish word, "vad".

That's world. World.

"Ska" or "ska", both pronunciations are correct. How would, what does, what would that mean?

Shall or will, like "jag ska gå", I will go.

"Arbete", what does that mean? "Arbete".

"Arbete" is work, and we also said we could say "jobb", "jobb", spelled almost the same as job, but instead of one B you have two Bs. "Barn", what does that mean?

That's obviously child. And of course you say "ett barn" to say a child, so because you know it's "ett barn", then if you say your child, what would you say? "Ditt barn". Our child, "vårt barn".

Their child, "deras barn".

And your child as in plural would be "ert barn", "ert barn".

Okay, so go, how would you say go in Swedish?

"Gå", "att gå". And when you change it, it becomes "går". So "jag går", "han går", "hon går", and so forth. Home, how do you say that in Swedish?

"Hem". What about where, like where are you?

Vart or you can say var. So here you may be wondering, wait a minute, we didn't talk about var as in where, we simply talked about vart, right? Vart ska du gå? Where are you going? Vart ska han gå?

Where is he going? So vart is where. But var is also where, so this may sound a bit confusing, but we'll try to explain it now.

So there are basically two different ways of saying where in Swedish. And so this is a bit more complicated than English, unfortunately. And it depends on the thing that you're describing, if it's in motion or if it's not in motion, if it's standing still.

So if you have motion, then you talk about vart.

So anytime you're saying like, where are you going, where is she coming, where are they running, where are they walking, all of these words, walking, going, running, these are words of movement. And then you need to say vart.

So for instance, how would you say, where will you go?

Vart ska du gå? And the reason for that is because you have a word that has to do with movement. So let's take another example. Now we don't have any movement, it's static, it's standing still. So for example, where are you?

If I ask you, where are you, I'm not asking you if where are you going, where are you coming from, where, none of those things, I'm asking you if... A question in which the answer is related to a place where you are or something is, not moving, it's stationary. So, where are you?

So you would then use var.

So in this case, what would that be? Where are you? How would you say that using var?

Var är du? Var är du? So this may seem confusing because in English you don't have this, so all of a sudden you have to think about an extra layer that you have to put on. You know, don't think about this as an obstruction, instead think of it as, you know, noting something interesting about another language, that they take into consideration movement.

So it's something interesting and fascinating, and once you sort of put that, the idea that it's an interesting thought about the language, then it's perhaps easier to remember it. However, I'm gonna let you in on a big, big secret, and that secret is: Most Swedes tend to confuse these sometimes.

So for instance, you may hear vart är du instead of var är du. And of course, the grammarians would be very angry. However, seeing as a lot of people tend to get these two mixed up, I wouldn't necessarily feel it's the most important thing to get right. Because if you were to say vart är du, honestly, even though it's not correct technically speaking, you'll hear a lot of people saying it.

So you can get away with it without necessarily causing any confusion. So don't worry. Just practice and don't worry.