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Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Við tökum borðið í sundur. - We take the table apart.

Hardcore Icelandic
/Helping friends move to a new home
/Við tökum borðið í sundur.

Við tökum borðið í sundur.

Word

Við tökum borðið í sundur.

Meaning

We take the table apart.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Icelandic

Lesson

Helping friends move to a new home

Breakdown of Við tökum borðið í sundur.

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Questions & Answers about Við tökum borðið í sundur.

Why is the verb tökum and not taka?

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.

Why is við included if tökum already means we take?

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.

Why does borð become borðið?

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.

What case is borðið, and why?

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.

What does í sundur mean here?

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

Is taka í sundur basically a fixed expression?

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.

Why does í sundur come after borðið?

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.

Can the word order change?

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?

Is this sentence a statement, or could it also mean Let’s take 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

How is borðið pronounced, especially the ð?

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

What is the dictionary form of each word in the sentence?

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.

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