hvem

Danish

Etymology

Originally, the dative of archaic hvo, from Old Danish hwa, hwo, oblique hwem, genitive hwes. In Old West Norse, the nominative and accusative of this pronoun has been replaced by another pronoun, hverr, but the dative and genitive are still extant: hveim, hves. From Proto-Germanic *hwaz (“who”), cognate with English who, German wer, Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐍃 (ƕas). The pronoun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kʷos, *kʷis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɛmˀ/, [ˈʋemˀ]
• North Jutland: IPA^(key): [ʍemˀ]
• Rhymes: -ɛmˀ

Pronoun

hvem (neuter hvad, genitive hvis)

1. (interrogative) who

   Hvem er du?

   Who are you?

   Hun ved godt, hvis cykel det er

   She knows whose bike it is

2. (relative) who, that

   De mennesker, for hvem livet indebærer hårdt arbejde

   The people for whom life is hard work

   Han er i en by, hvis navn han ikke kan udtale

   He is in a town, the name of which he cannot pronounce

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Danish hvem, from Old Norse hveim. Known in a runic spelling as huem (with a bind rune) in a magical manuscript from around 1650.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɛm/

Pronoun

hvem

1. (interrogative) who, whom

   Hvem gjorde det? ― Who did that? — (subject)

   Hvem er du? ― Who are you? — (predicate)

   Hvem spurte du? ― Whom did you ask? — (verbal object)

   Av hvem? ― By whom? — (prepositional object)

2. (dated, relative after a preposition) who, whom
3. (dialectal, Drammen) which

Usage notes

• In indirect questions, hvem is followed by the relative som as a subject: Jeg vet ikke hvem som gjorde det. (“I don’t know who did that.”) In all other functions, som is obligatorily left out: Jeg vet ikke hvem du er. (“I don’t know who you are.”)

References

• “hvem” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “hvem” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• L.K. Helstad (2019) Runer i norske svartebøker.

Swedish

Pronoun

hvem (genitive hvems, plural hvilka)

1. Obsolete spelling of vem.