Verbs and subjects in a sentence for each word

Exercises in Identifying Subjects and Verbs

There are two basic parts of a sentence: the subject and the predicate. The subject is usually a noun: a person, place or thing. The predicate is usually a phrase that includes a verb: a word that identifies an action or state of being. For example, both «run» and «is» are verbs. 

One easy way to distinguish subjects from verbs is to put the word «he» or «she» before the word. If the phrase makes sense, the word is a verb. If it doesn’t, it’s probably a noun. For example, is the word «bird» a subject (noun) or a verb? How about the word «dances?» To find out, put the word «he» in front of each word. «He bird» makes no sense, so the word «bird» is a noun and could be the subject of a sentence. «He dances» does make sense, so the word «dances» is a verb, which could be part of the predicate.

Try these exercises to help you distinguish between subjects and verbs. Two exercises are provided to give you (or your students) two opportunities to practice.

For each of the following sentences, decide whether the word in bold print is the subject or the verb. When you are done, compare your responses with the answers below.

1. The dog shivered.
2. An owl shrieked.
3. The moon disappeared behind the clouds.
4. We waited.
5. Nobody said a word. 
6. For a moment, nobody even breathed.
7. A light rain fell on our heads.
8. The leaves trembled.
9. Our hearts beat faster.
10. Then the black sky opened up.
11. Furious flames lit up the night.

Answers

1. verb; 2. subject; 3. verb; 4. subject; 5. verb; 6. subject; 7. verb; 8. verb; 9. verb; 10. subject; 11. subject

Exercise B: Identifying Subjects and Verbs

For each of the following sentences, decide whether the word in bold print is the subject or the verb. When you are done, compare your responses with the answers below.

1. Mr. William Herring is the jolliest man I know.
2. His outward features reflect the delightful character within.
3. His hair is red and frizzy, like Orphan Annie’s.
4. His head is fat and round.
5. He has small, dark, hamster-like eyes.
6. His eyes peer inquisitively from behind metal-rimmed glasses.
7. His small mouth is always formed into a friendly grin.
8. His thick neck connects this funny head to an egg-shaped torso.
9. He has two fat arms with plump hands and fingers shaped like hot dogs.
10. On one of these fingers is a diamond-studded gold ring.
11. The gleam of the ring matches the brilliance of Mr. Bill’s smile.
12. His Santa Claus belly, girded by a cowboy belt, hangs over the sort of baggy trousers that went out of style with leisure suits and platform shoes.
13. Mr. Bill’s shoes, however, are invisible beneath his trousers.
14. Still, his walk is distinctive.
15. In fact, he seems to roll rather than walk.
16. He rolls to the rhythm of his own laughter.
17. His students roll right along with him.

Answers

1. subject; 2. verb; 3. subject; 4. verb; 5. verb; 6. subject; 7. subject; 8. verb; 9. subject; 10. subject; 11. verb; 12. subject; 13. verb; 14. subject; 15. verb; 16. verb; 17. subject

Hē
hīe
sōna
forslōg
and
ġeflȳmde.

On
þissum
ġēare
Centwine
ġeflȳmde
Bretwēalas
oþ
sǣ.

Hēr
Ēadmund cyning
ġeflȳmde
twēġen cyningas.

Þā
ġefylde
hē
mid
wætre
þǣre ċyrċan cyllan.

Sume hī
man
wið
fēo
sealde.

Octauius hātte se hǣþena dēma
þe
hine
ācwealde.

Sume men
þæs wōses
syndriġlīċe
brūcað.

Iċ wēne þæt hit ne sȳ unrihtwīsnysse
þēah ðe
þū
wīfes
bruce
and
blysse
on
līfe

Ēadwulf bisceop
þissa landa
brēac

his
līfes
tīda.

Se ðe
eteð
flǣsc
on
þysum
þrim
dagum,
hē sceal sweltan ǣr fēowertigum dagum.

Ġē
habbað
maniġe godas
and
manega gydena.

Þā
ġesāwon
hīe
Romane scipa
on
sǣ
irnan.

Hē cwæð,
‘iċ
can
þone dōm
and
iċ
hine
æt
þām ġeate
ġeseah.

Þā
se brōðor
þæt
þā
ġehȳrde,
þā
cȳðde
hē
hit
þǣre abbudissan.

Hē cwæð tō him,
‘ġehȳrað
mīn swefn
þe mē ġemǣtte.’

1. What is Subject-Verb Agreement?

When writing and speaking in present tenses, the subjects and verbs in a sentence need to be in the same form, or, “agree” with each other, and that’s called subject-verb agreement (SVA). Subjects and verbs have single and plural forms, and it’s important not to mix them up. All sentences need a subject and a verb to be complete, but if they don’t match, the sentence won’t make sense!

2. Examples of Subject-Verb Agreement

Overall, subject-verb agreement is a very simple idea. For subjects and verbs to agree, the numbers need to agree.

For instance, if a person is riding a bike, you need to express that one person rides one bike. So, to write in singular, you need to add “s” to the base form of the verb:

• Sally rides her bike to school.
• Sally ride her bike to school.

Now, if Sally and Sam, or “friends,” are riding bikes, there are two or more nouns, so we use the plural form. For plural, you just use the base form of the verb (ride):

• Sally and Sam ride their bikes to school.
• Friends ride their bikes to school.
• Sally and Sam rides their bikes to school.
• Friends rides their bikes to school.

3. Rules of Subject-Verb Agreement

Present tense nouns and verbs have singular and plural forms. There are some special cases, for instance, pronouns (like I and you) have their own rules. Also, as you probably already know, the verb “to be” is special, and also has some of its own rules.

a. Singulars

Singular subjects need singular verbs.

Singular nouns do not have an “s”, but singular verbs need an “s”

• The girl walks to work.
• A snail moves slowly.
• That cat likes sleeping.
• My sister helps other.

b. Plurals

• Likewise, plural subjects need plural verbs.
• Plural nouns have an “s”, but plural verbs do not.

Here are some examples:

Girls walk to work.
Snails move slowly.
Cats like sleeping.
Sisters help others.

This chart can help you remember common subject-verb combinations for singulars and plurals.

Noun	Other Verb
Sally (She)	loves
Sally and Sam (They)	love
The snail (It)	loves
The snails (They)	love

c. Special Case: Personal Pronouns

Most words follow the normal subject-verb agreement rules—except some personal pronouns. Even though I and you are singular, they require a plural verb.

Pronoun	Verb
I	love
You	love
We	love
They	love
He/She	loves

d. Special Case: the verb “to be”

As you know, the verb “to be” is special. This chart will remind you of its proper forms:

Pronoun/Noun	Present “to be”	Past “to be”
The snail (it)	is	was
The snails (they)	are	were
I	am	was
You	are	were
We	are	were
They	are	were
He/She	is	was

4. Types of Subject-Verb Agreement Situations

There are many types of situations where subject-verb agreement follows specific rules. Below are eight of the most common.

a. Compound subjects (two or more nouns joined by “and”) are always plural:

• Sally and Sam walks walk to school together.
• Carrots and peas is are gross
• Dogs and cats run fast.
• Moms and Dads teach their kids new things.

b. A compound subject made of two singular subjects joined together by “or” and “nor” (usually combine with either/neither) need singular verbs:

• Neither Sally nor Sam ride rides a bike to school.
• Neither the dog nor the cat eats fish.

• Either Sally or Sam are is coming to help.
• Either the dog or the cat is eating the cheese.

To check for mistakes, you can leave out the first half of the subject, and the subject and verb will still agree:

• Neither Sally nor Sam rides a bike to school.
• Neither the dog nor The cat eats fish.

c. When plural or mixed plural/singular subjects are in a neither/nor or either/or situations, the verb agrees with the noun or pronoun closest to it:

• Either the foxes or the rabbit likes carrots.
• Either the rabbit or foxes like carrots.

• Neither my chickens nor my duck sleeps outside.
• Neither my duck nor my chickens sleep outside.

Again, you can check this by cutting out the other half of the subject:

• Either the foxes or The rabbit likes carrots.
• Either the rabbit or Foxes like carrots.

d. The word “of” often causes confusion about subject-verb agreement. When you have A of B, (a box of cookies, a collection of books, groups of people, swarms of bees) the verb matches A.

• The box of cookies smells delicious.
• The boxes of cookies smell delicious.

• A collection of books is a great thing to have.
• Collections of books are great things to have.

A is the true subject, even though it contains B. To check to see if a subject and verb agrees in this situation, you can remove the “of B”, and it should sound correct:

• The box smells delicious.
• The boxes smell delicious.

e. Phrases or clauses (purple) between subjects and verbs DO NOT change the tense of the verb. It still needs to agree with the main noun of the subject:

• The dog with lots of fleas is very itchy.
• The dogs with the brown fur are very soft.

• That cup, as well as all the mugs, breaks easily.
• Those cups, as well as that mug, break easily.

To double-check this grammar situation, you can remove the phrase, and the sentence should still work:

• The dog is very itchy
• The dogs are very soft.

f. The word doesn’t (does not) can only be used with a singular subject, and the word don’t (do not) can only be used with plural subjects:

• The snail doesn’t move quickly.
• Snails don’t move quickly.

• The alligator doesn’t eat vegetables.
• Alligators don’t eat vegetables.

g. Collective nouns (groups of people) are considered singular, so they use singular verbs. But, if you break these groups down into members, THEN you need a singular verb:

• The Smith family is famous in this neighborhood.
• The kids in the Smith family are famous in this neighborhood.

• A wolf pack runs through the forest each night.
• The leaders of the wolf pack run through the forest each night.

• The local soccer team wins every game.
• Players on the local soccer team win every game.

• Town council elects the new governor.
• Members of the town council elect the new governor.

h. These special words are all singular and need singular verbs, even though some of them seem like plurals: each, each one, either, neither, everyone, everybody, anybody, anyone, nobody, somebody, someone.

• Everybody likes pizza.
• Anybody likes pizza.
• Each one likes pizza
• Neither likes pizza.

There is an exception here, for the word “each.” If “each” follows a plural noun, then it needs a plural verb, but alone “each” is singular:

• The kids each like pizza.
• They each like pizza.
• Each likes pizza.

5. How to Avoid Mistakes

The basic idea being subject-verb agreement is easy: singulars + singulars, plurals + plurals. Still, people mix them up all the time. Here are some key rules to remember when you are checking your own subject-verb agreement:

• Singular subjects must have singular verbs
• Plural subjects must have plural verbs
• Usually, a mix of singular and plural creates subject-verb disagreement.
• There are special cases where singles and plurals mix, like with personal pronouns.
• The verb “to be” is special and often changes with the subject

Let’s review with a couple more simple examples:

• My grandma likes knitting.      Correct SVA
• My grandma like knitting.      Incorrect SVA
• Grandmas like knitting.      Correct SVA
• Grandmas likes knitting.      Incorrect SVA

Here’s one last easy tip to help tell if subjects and verbs agree: Simply read the sentence out loud to yourself! When subjects and verbs disagree, it almost always sounds really awkward.

Subjects and verbs must agree in two ways: number (singular or plural) and person (first, second, or third). These two general rules hold through all the different subject/verb guidelines. As a rule, plural subjects end in —s and plural verbs do not end in —s. In this section, the noun is in bold and the verb is in italic.

In the vast majority of cases, the central clause elements, subjects (S), predicate verbs (V), objects (O), and predicatives (P) occur in a fixed order. Thus, as in the following examples, the subject precedes the verb, which precedes the object or predicative.

(1) The entire population (S) grieved (V) the death of their leader (O).
(2) The results (S) were (V) very surprising (P).

Adverbials have much greater freedom of position, and may occur in initial position, in final position, or even in various medial positions between other clause elements, although such placement is fairly restricted in English. The following example illustrates various adverbial positions in English.

(3) At the outset the containers were carefully monitored to avoid contamination. 

The main rule which is relevant here is, again, that the subject precedes the predicate verb in all but a few well-defined types of clauses.
However, there are a few cases in English where the order between subject and predicate verb is inverted, that is, when the predicate verb (or one of the verbs that belong to the predicate verb) actually precedes the subject. This is called inversion. Inversion is discussed in the sections below.

Swedish is also an SV(O) language, that is, the normal (or unmarked) order between the major clause elements is that the subject precedes the verb, and that the verb precedes any objects and predicatives (e.g. Kalle har en båt ‘Kalle has a boat’). In this respect, English and Swedish are alike.
However, there is also a very important difference between the two languages when it comes to word order. Swedish is a V2 language, but English is not. V2 stands for ‘verb second’. In a V2 language, the predicate verb is always in second position in declarative main clauses, where a declarative clause is a clause that is typically used to make a statement (e.g. You are nice, instead of Are you nice).
This claim about V2 languages needs to be commented on and qualified. To begin with, «second position» does not mean ‘second word’, but rather ‘second constituent’ or ‘second clause element’. So, in a V2 language, the predicate verb is the second clause element.
Moreover, when we say that the predicate verb is always in second position in a declarative main clause in a V2 language, what we actually mean is that the finite verb of the predicate verb which is in second position. Some examples might be useful.

(1) [Peter] är lärare. ‘Peter is a teacher.

(2) [Peters nya fru] är lärare. ‘Peter’s new wife is a teacher’

(3) [Peter] har aldrig varit i London. ‘Peter has never been in London’

(4) [Mina kusiner] vill inte leka med mig. ‘My cousins do not want to play with me’

The fact that Swedish, but not English, is a V2 language has not been illustrated by the examples given so far. The reason that no V2-effects have been possible to observe in these main clauses is that there has not been anything but subjects before the finite verb of the verb phrase functioning as predicate verb in these examples.
However, if we put an adverbial or an object at the very beginning of a declarative sentence, we will immediately be able to spot this crucial difference between the two languages:

(5) [Förra året] fick [Paul] fast anställning. ‘[Last year], [Paul] got a permanent post’

(6) [Dessa fenomen] upptäckte [vi] inte förrän igår. ‘[These phenomena] [we] did not discover until yesterday’

We will not go into detail here and discuss each and every adverbial type or class. The following cases should be mentioned and remembered, though:
(a) Since English is not a V2-language, there is a position for adverbials between the subject and the finite verb, as in (1):

(1) She probablymet her husband in France.

This position is often used if there is no auxiliary in the predicate verb and the adverbial is realised by a one-word adverb phrase.
(b) The prescriptive rule that we should split infinitives is stronger in English than in Swedish. A split infinitive is when there is an adverbial, for instance a negation, between the infinitive marker to and the infinitive, as in (2):

(2) I told her toimmediately leave the premises.

Even though this rule is often broken in authentic English, we ought to follow the rule when the adverbial is never, not, or only, that is, we say and write (3), instead of (4), even though the corresponding (5) is completely natural and grammatical in Swedish.

(3) I told you not to leave.

(4) *I told you tonot leave. 

(5) Jag sa till dig att inte gå.

(c) It is much more natural in Swedish than in English to place heavy/complex adverbials in other positions than at the very beginning or the very end of the sentence. So, please avoid placing heavy adverbials in the middle of your English sentences. 

Most clauses have only one subject. However, there are clause types which grammarians analyse as having two subjects. Such clauses have a ‘light’ subject in the form of a pronoun in the usual position before the predicate verb and another ‘heavier’ subject after the verb. In the following examples the two types of subject are highlighted.

(4) It was suggested that the Emperor of Austria should become the German Emperor.
(5) There were no signs of violence.

As these examples show, the first subject, referred to as the preparatory subject, can be either it or there. It is the form of the second subject, referred to as the postponed subject, that determines the choice of preparatory subject. 

• It is used as the preparatory subject when the postponed subject is a clause.
• There is used as the preparatory subject when the postponed subject is a noun phrase.

In clauses with there as the preparatory subject it is the noun phrase functioning as the postponed subject that determines the form of the verb. Thus, when the postponed subject is a singular noun phrase, the predicate verb is also singular, and when the postponed subject is a plural noun phrase, the predicate verb is also plural.

(6) There was a sudden pause.
(7) There were several armed uprisings after the revolution.

While the subject normally precedes the predicate verb, there are cases where the order is reversed so that the predicate verb, or part of the predicate verb, precedes the subject. The most common instance of inverted word-order is found in yes/no questions, as in the following examples.

(8) Will (v) the government (S) survive (V) the election?
(9) Can (v) the President (S) go (V) beyond the law?

These examples illustrate the fact that when the predicate verb is made up of several verbs, only the first auxiliary verb precedes the subject.
For the purpose of forming questions in this way, English has a special auxiliary, do, which is used in clauses where the predicate verb consists of a single verb. Thus, to form a yes/no question from The President sent a message to Downing Street, we insert do before the subject.

(10)The President (S) sent (V) a message to Downing Street.
(11) Did (v) the President (S) send (V) a message to Downing Street?

The same inverted word-order as that found in yes/no questions is also used in clauses introduced by a negative or restrictive clause element. In the following example, the initial element Not only is negative and is followed by inverted word order: could congress declare…

(12) Not only could (v) Congress (S) declare (V) war but the states were forbidden to engage in it without the consent of Congress.

Further examples (with the initial negative element highlighted):

(13) Never before have human rights been so fully and completely violated.

(14) On no account must the moisture level raise above 7 or 8 per cent.

(15) Not until the end of the hour-long conversation did the President get to the point.

English and Swedish are both SVO languages, so SVO is the basic word order of both English and Swedish. This means that the subject generally precedes the predicate verb and that other obligatory constituents of the clause/sentence (i.e. direct and indirect objects, subject and object predicatives, and obligatory adverbials) normally follow the predicate verb. Have a look at the following examples to see what is meant by this:

(1) [This investigation] (S) shows (V) [that Burton was right] (Od).
(2) [Laura] (S) gave (V) [her supervisor] (Oi) [something to think about] (Od).
(3) [This] (S) must be (V) [their best article so far] (Ps).
(4) [These results] (S) will make (V)[us] (Od) [famous] (Po).
(5) [He] (S) put (V) [his glasses] (Od) [on the copying machine] (A).

All these five sentences can be directly translated into Swedish and then analysed in the exact same way, which shows that English and Swedish have the same basic word order, i.e. the same order between the major clause elements.
When such claims about basic word order are made, the positions available for optional adverbials are normally not taken into consideration, that is, two languages can have the same basic word order, but differ from each other to same extent when it comes to the positions in which different types of adverbials typically occur.

It is often possible to vary the word order of a sentence, i.e. we do not always make use of the basic word order. However, when some other grammatical order between the clause elements is used instead of the basic one, this is always done for a reason.
Two versions of the same sentence which only differ from each other with regard to word order can never be used completely interchangeably. Which one of them is to be used depends on the linguistic context (i.e. the surrounding clauses and sentences) and on exactly what the writer wishes to express. It also happens that the word order is varied just for the sake of variation, but such practise had better be avoided by non-native writers, partly because of the risk of giving rise to unintended readings.
One important way of varying the word order is to «move» some constituent to the beginning of the clause/sentence. If we have another look at sentences (1) to (5) above, we can see that it is always possible to move another constituent to the beginning of the sentence, even though some of the resulting sentences can only be used in fairly limited and precise contexts. The basic word order is still the unmarked one, in the sense that it is the word order that would be used if there is no reason to do otherwise. So, if we move the direct object in (1) to the initial position, we get (6).

(6) [That Burton was right] (Od) [this investigation] (S) shows (V).

This is clearly not an unmarked sentence. We need to imagine, for instance, a sentence following this one, which establishes a contrast between what the investigation shows (i.e. that Burton was right) and what it does not show.
In a similar fashion, we can move the obligatory adverbial in (5) to the initial position to get (7) or the direct object in (5) to get (8):

(7) [On the copying machine] (A) [he] (S) put (V) [his glasses] (Od).
(8) [His glasses] (Od) [he] (S) put (V) [on the copying machine] (A).

In (7) we probably contrast

 (9) on the copying machine

with some other location where he put something else. In (8) we probably contrast the putting of his glasses on the copying machine with something else that he did not put on the copying machine (but either put elsewhere, or did not put anywhere at all). We have to be aware in all these cases of the fact that we can do very much with intonation and stress, so not everything depends on word order alone. 
OK, so now we know that Swedish and English have the same basic word order, since the English sentences (1) to (5) can be translated directly into Swedish, with the exact same word order, as in (10) to (14):

(10) Den här undersökningen visar att Burton hade rätt.
(11) Laura gav sin handledare något att tänka på.
(12) Detta måste vara deras bästa artikel hittills.
(13) Dessa resultat kommer att göra oss berömda.
(14) Han lade sina glasögon på kopieringsapparaten.

We also know that we do not always use the basic word order, and that alternative word orders are employed for certain reasons, i.e. we cannot normally use an alternative word order just because we feel like it; the alternative/marked word order must fit the context.
Even though English and Swedish have the same the same basic word order, there are also important word-order-related differences between the two languages, something that becomes apparent as soon as we start moving the corresponding constituents of our Swedish corresponding sentences.
If we start with

(15) Den här undersökningen visar att Burton hade rätt.

and move the direct object to the initial position, we also have to move the subject to the position after the predicate verb, that is, we get

(16) Att Burton hade rätt visar den här undersökningen.

instead of

(17) *Att Burton (2004) hade rätt den här undersökningen visar.

This isbeacuse Swedish, contrary to English, is not only an SVO language, but also a V2 language.
V2 languages want to have their predicate verbs (or at least the finite verb of the verb phrase functioning as predicate verb) in second position in declarative main clauses (i.e. statements). By «second position» we should understand that it must be the second constituent, rather than, say, the second word.Word order is thus more about constituent order than about word order as such.
So, given that Swedish is a V2 language, it follows that (17) cannot be grammatical, since there are two constituents (Att Burton hade rätt and den här undersökningen) before the predicate verb visar.
Similarly, we cannot move sina glasögon or på kopieringsapparaten to the initial position, without also moving the subject to the position after the predicate verb, i.e. we get (18) instead of (19) and (20) instead of (21):

(18) Sina glasögon lade han på kopieringsapparaten.

(19) *Sina glasögon han lade på kopieringsapparaten.
(20) På kopieringsapparaten lade han sina glasögon.
(21) *På kopieringsapparaten han lade sina glasögon.

So, whenever some other constituent than the subject precedes the predicate verb in Swedish, the subject has to move to a position after the predicate verb, or at least to a position after the finite verb of the verb phrase functioning as predicate verb. There is a name for this unorthodox positioning of the subject after the (finite) verb in an SVO language. It is called inversion.
When the the whole predicate verb phrase precedes the subject, we talk about full inversion or complete inversion, and when it is just the finite verb that precedes the subject (while the rest of the predicate verb phrase follows it), we call this partial inversion.
Both English and Swedish have both types of inversion, but both complete and partial inversion are much more frequent in Swedish, because of the V2 constraint. The most important similarities and differences are illustrated in the table and through the examples below (PI = ‘Partical Inversion; CI/PI = ‘Complete Inversion or Partial Inversion’; NWO = ‘Normal Word Order’):

	English	Swedish
	PI	CI/PI	NWO	PI	CI/PI	NWO
1. Initial adverbial			X		X
2. Initial clause negation/restriction	X				X
3. Initial object/predictaive			X		X
4. Yes/no question	X				X
5. wh-question (wh-word subject)			X			X
6. wh-question (wh-word not subject)	X				X

What this table is intended to show is, once again, that Swedish has inversion in many cases when English has normal word order (NWO). In such cases, Swedish has partial inversion (PI), if the predicate verb phrase consists of more than one verb (i.e. at least one auxiliary in addition to the main verb), and complete inversion (CI) if the predicate verb phrase consists of nothing but the main/lexical verb. This means that it must be the case that both partial and complete inversion is more frequent in Swedish than in English.
Partial inversion is sometimes called ‘question word order’ since it is the typical word order of questions in English. It is used in all yes/no questions (at least if we analyse questions such as Are you here? as cases of partial inversion, even though this is somewhat problematic).
Partial inversion is also used in all wh-questions in which the wh-word is not the subject. By wh-words we understand question words such as who, what, which, where, how, why, etc., most of which start with the letter combination wh.
To detrmine if the wh-word is the subject of the wh-question or not is not as difficult as it may sound. We know that all complete sentences (including questions) must have a subject. If there is no other constituent in the clause that functions as the subject (i.e. no other constituent that answers the question «Who/What VERB?»), the wh-word (or the phrase to which it belongs) is the subject. So, in the question

(22)Who did you meet yesterday?

you is the subject, while the wh-word is the (direct) object. This means that we should have partial inversion, which is also the case (i.e. did you meet, where the auxiliary did precedes the subject and the main verb meet follows it).
In the question (23) there is no other good candidate for the job of subject than the initial wh-word who (i.e who, or the possible referent(s) of who, is the one(s) who want(s)). Since the wh-word who is the subject, there is no inversion.

(23) Who wants to be a millionaire?

The difference between Swedish and English when it comes to wh-questions is that while English always has partial inversion in wh-questions in which the wh-word is not the subject, Swedish can have complete inversion:

(24) Vem träffade ni igår?

When such wh-questions are formed in English, we have to add a form of the dummy auxiliary do, if there is no other auxiliary available. If there is an auxiliary available in a wh-question in which the wh-word is not the subject, we make use of this auxiliary in both English and Swedish in order to create an inverted question, as in (25) and (26):

(25) Who will you meet in Denmark?
(26) Vem ska ni träffa i Danmark?

Before we have a look at a number of sentences illustrating all the cases in the table above, it should be mentioned that Swedish also has the type of complete inversion that English sometimes has after initial adverbials of location or direction, when the predicate verb is short and the subject is considerably heavier (i.e. longer, in terms of words or syllables) than the predicate verb.
English examples include (27) and (28), while (29) and (30) exemplify roughly the same phenomenon in Swedish (but remember that Swedish has inversion after all types of adverbials, so the structures are of course less exceptional in Swedish): 

(27) Off went the bus.
(28) On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross
(29) Bort flög kråkan. (instead of Kråkan flög bort)
(30) Under bordet stod en ko. (instead of En ko stod under bordet)

OK. Let us finally have a look at a number of linguistic examples that are intended to clearly illustrate the generalisations on which the table above are based (please note that fronted material is in italics, predicate verbs are in boldface, and subjects appear within square brackets):
1. After an ordinary initial adverbial, Swedish has partial or complete inversion (depending on the number of verbs in the predicate verb phrase), while English has normal word order.

(31)  Igår          köpte   [jag] en bil.

(32)  Förmodligen har  [han] redan   gått.

(33) Yesterday [I ] bought a car.

(34) Probably, [he] has already left.

2. After an initial clause negation/restriction, English has partial inversion, while Swedish has partial or complete inversion (depending on the number of verbs in the predicate verb phrase).

(35) Not until yesterdaydid [I] realise that he was my boss.

(36) Inte förrän igår          insåg     [jag] att   han var   min chef.

(37) Inte utan     orsak   hade de     klagat         på       hans uppförande.

3. After an initial object or predicative, English has normal word order, while Swedish has partial or complete inversion (depending on the number of verbs in the predicate verb phrase).

(38) (To) His mother [he] bought an umbrella.
(39) The handout [he] finished in no time.
(40) Ill [he] was, but he did not cancel his classes.

(41) (Till) sin mor      köpte   [han] ett paraply.

(42) Stödpapperetfärdigställde [han] på nolltid.

(43) Sjukvar  [han], men han ställde      inte in      sina lektioner.  

(44) «Kalle»kallade [de]    honom inte.

4. In yes/no questions, English has partial inversion, while Swedish has either partial inversion or complete inversion (depending on the number of verbs in the predicate verb phrase).

(45) Will [they] go to Paris?
(46) Did [you] send him our proposal?
(47) Ska [de]    åka till Paris?
(48) Jobbar [de]    på Lunds universitet?

5. In wh-questions in which the wh-word is the subject, both English and Swedish has normal word order (SVO).

(49) [Who] made professor?
(50) [What] caused your problems?
(51) [Vem] blev   professor?
(52) [Vad]   orsakade era  problem?

6. In wh-questions in which the wh-word is not the subject, English has partial inversion, while Swedish has either partial inversion or complete inversion (depending on the number of verbs in the predicate verb phrase).

(53) What did [you] read yesterday?
(54) Why have [you] bought a new computer?
(55) Vad   läste [du]  igår?
(56) Varför har [du]  köpt en ny    dator?