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hvem. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
hvem, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
hvem in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
hvem you have here. The definition of the word
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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 In Old West Norse, the nominative and accusative of this pronoun has been replaced by another pronoun, hverr, but the dative and genitive are still extant: hveim, hves.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
Pronoun
hvem (neuter hvad, genitive hvis)
- (interrogative) who
Hun ved godt, hvis cykel det er- She knows whose bike it is
- (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
References
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
Pronoun
hvem
- (interrogative) who
- Hvem er du? ― Who are you?
- (relative) who, whom
- Hvem spurte du? ― Whom did you ask?
- Av hvem? ― By whom?
- (dialectal (Drammen) which
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)
- Obsolete spelling of vem