Við tökum borðið í sundur.

Because tökum is the 1st person plural present tense form of taka (to take).

• að taka = to take
• ég tek = I take
• við tökum = we take

So with við (we), the verb has to be tökum.

This verb is also a little irregular, because the vowel changes:

• infinitive: taka
• present singular: tek
• present plural: tökum

That kind of vowel change is very common in Icelandic strong verbs.

In Icelandic, the verb ending already shows the subject, so tökum by itself can imply we take. But Icelandic still very often uses the subject pronoun explicitly.

So:

• Tökum borðið í sundur. = We take the table apart / Let’s take the table apart, depending on context
• Við tökum borðið í sundur. = explicitly We take the table apart

Including við makes the subject clear and natural. It is not redundant in the way it might feel to an English speaker.

Because -ið is the definite article attached to the noun.

• borð = a table / table
• borðið = the table

Icelandic usually puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

Since borð is a neuter noun, the singular definite form is borðið.

Here borðið is the direct object of the verb tökum, so it is in the accusative case.

The verb taka normally takes an accusative object:

• taka eitthvað = take something

For the noun borð, the nominative and accusative singular happen to look the same:

• nominative: borðið
• accusative: borðið

So even though the form does not change, its role here is accusative because it is the object.

Í sundur is a very common Icelandic expression meaning apart, into pieces, or into separate parts.

So taka ... í sundur means:

• take apart
• disassemble

This is not something you should translate word-for-word too literally every time. It works as a fixed expression.

Some useful comparisons:

• setja saman = put together / assemble
• taka í sundur = take apart / disassemble

Yes. It functions a lot like an English phrasal expression.

Even though you can understand the parts separately:

• taka = take
• í sundur = apart

the combination taka [something] í sundur is best learned as a unit meaning to take [something] apart.

That is often the easiest way to remember natural Icelandic usage.

Because the normal word order here is:

• Við = subject
• tökum = verb
• borðið = object
• í sundur = adverbial/predicative phrase

So the sentence follows a very normal Icelandic pattern: Subject + Verb + Object + Phrase

This is similar to English:

• We take the table apart

where the table comes before apart.

Yes, Icelandic word order is flexible, but the basic sentence is very natural as written.

For example, you could move things around for emphasis:

• Borðið tökum við í sundur.
• Í sundur tökum við borðið.

These are possible, but they sound more marked or emphatic. For a learner, Við tökum borðið í sundur is the safest neutral order.

Also, if you make it a yes/no question, Icelandic usually puts the verb first:

• Tökum við borðið í sundur? = Are we taking the table apart?

By itself, Við tökum borðið í sundur is most straightforwardly a statement: We take / are taking the table apart.

But depending on context, Icelandic can sometimes use a 1st person plural form in a way that feels close to English let’s. Still, the clearest way to understand this exact sentence is as a normal statement unless the surrounding context suggests a suggestion or plan.

So for a beginner, it is best to read it as:

• We take the table apart or
• We are taking the table apart

The ð in Icelandic is like the th in English this, not like the th in thing.

So borðið is roughly pronounced like:

• BOR-thith but with Icelandic sounds, especially a shorter, crisper ending than in English.

A few pronunciation notes:

• ö in tökum is like the vowel in French peur or German hören, not like English o
• í is a long ee sound
• u in sundur is not the English oo

Exact pronunciation takes practice, but the main point is:

• ð = voiced th
• þ = unvoiced th

Here are the dictionary forms:

• Við → við = we
• tökum → taka = to take
• borðið → borð = table
• í sundur → usually learned as the expression í sundur = apart

This is useful because Icelandic words often change form a lot, especially verbs and nouns with the definite article attached.