varav

Varav is a Swedish conjunction used to introduce a relative clause that specifies a subset of something mentioned earlier. It translates roughly as "of which," "of those," or "among which" and is commonly found in formal writing, legal documents, reports, and academic prose.

In Swedish grammar, varav follows the antecedent noun phrase and introduces a clause whose subject refers to a subset of the whole mentioned previously. The verb in the relative clause agrees with its own subject, not with the entire antecedent. Varav is typically used when the writer wants to emphasize the portion of a larger group.

Examples illustrate its use: "Företaget har fyra avdelningar, varav två ligger i Göteborg." (The company has four divisions, of which two are located in Gothenburg.) "Huset består av fyra enheter, varav tre används som kontor." (The building consists of four units, of which three are used as offices.) "Kandidaterna inkluderade flera personer, varav tre hade erfarenhet inom området." (The candidates included several people, of which three had experience in the field.)

Usage notes: varav tends to appear in formal or written Swedish and is less common in everyday speech, where alternatives like "två av de fyra" or "var av de fyra" might be used. It helps to clarify the relationship between a whole and a specific subset, making it a useful tool in precise descriptions and analyses. See also: relative clauses in Swedish, formal ditransitive constructions.