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Relative Clauses

som, vars and vilken/vilket/vilka

som is the most common relative pronoun

som = who/which/that and is invariable for all genders.

📊 Relative pronouns
Pronoun Use Example
som subject or object (most common) boken som jag läste
vars genitive (whose) mannen vars hund...
vilken/vilket formal
after preposition det hus i vilket hon bor
vem indefinite person den som vill...
där/dit place relative huset där hon bor
💬 Examples
mannen som bor här
the man who lives here
📝 som = subject relative pronoun
boken som jag läste
the book (that) I read
📝 som = object relative pronoun
vars = whose (genitive relative)

vars is invariable and used when the relative pronoun is possessive.

💬 Examples
mannen vars hund sprang bort
the man whose dog ran away
📝 vars + following noun
ett land vars historia är lång
a country whose history is long
📝 vars for things too
som cannot follow a preposition; use vilken/vilket

After a preposition, use the vilken/vilket/vilka forms.

💬 Examples
huset i vilket hon bor (formal)
the house in which she lives
📝 i + vilket (not i + som)
personen med vilken jag talade
the person with whom I spoke
📝 med + vilken in formal written Swedish