In Swedish, there are three words for “where”. These are var, vart and varifrån. The differences between them aren’t too hard to master. They have to do with movement vs. non-movement, as well as direction.

Var is the simplest of the three. It asks about a static location. For example:

Var står bilen? – Where is the car?

In this example, the car is at a location, and it is not moving. Therefore, there is no direction involved – it’s just parked somewhere. Simple enough, right?

Vart is different. It is used when you want to ask what direction something or someone is moving in. In other words, there is both movement and specific direction involved. For example:

Vart ska vi åka imorgon? – Where are we going tomorrow?

As you can see, vart asks about movement to somewhere. You can think of it as corresponding to the English “to where?” – “To where are we going tomorrow?”. In English, we often leave out “to”, but in Swedish, this distinction is necessary.

Finally, we have varifrån. This is similar to vart, but instead of asking “to where?”, we are asking “from where?“:

Varifrån kommer du? – Where are you from?

In other words, varifrån asks about movement from somewhere, rather than to somewhere. We can also separate var and ifrån like this:

Var kommer du ifrån? – Where are you from?

Both forms – the single-word form and the separated form – are used in everyday speech. It’s totally up to you which one you prefer. In formal texts, though, usually varifrån, not separated, is preferred.

In some dialects, strangely enough, var is substituted by vart:

Vart ligger sjukhuset? – Where is the hospital?

This is typical in, for example, Uppland, the municipality where the city of Uppsala lies. Some other dialects substitute var with vars – this is typical, for example, in Västerbotten, where you can find the city of Umeå.

In standard Swedish, all three of these “where” words are used in everyday language, so it is important to learn them. Var, vart and varifrån are all pronounced with a long a, as in far, “father”. Varifrån has two points of stress: VAR-i-FRÅN.

So, varifrån are you? Var do you live? And vart in Sweden do you want to go? Answer in the comments!