Ég hlusta á tónlist.

I

Breakdown of Ég hlusta á tónlist.

• hlusta: to listen
• á: to
• tónlist: the music

Questions & Answers about Ég hlusta á tónlist.

Why is the preposition á used after hlusta? Can I say Ég hlusta tónlist?

The verb hlusta (“to listen”) in Icelandic requires the preposition á before its object when you talk about sounds or music. You cannot drop it. So Ég hlusta á tónlist is correct, whereas Ég hlusta tónlist is ungrammatical.

What case is tónlist in after á?

Here tónlist is in the accusative case (the direct-object case) because hlusta á governs the accusative. For this feminine noun, nominative, accusative and dative singular all look identical (tónlist), but grammatically it’s accusative.

Why isn’t there an article before tónlist? How would I say “the music”?

Indefinite singular nouns in Icelandic appear without an article, so tónlist simply means “(some) music.” To say “the music,” you add the definite article as a suffix: tónlistin.
Example: Ég hlusta á tónlistin = “I am listening to the music.”

Why does the verb hlusta look the same as the infinitive? Shouldn’t it change for “I”?

In the present tense, first-person singular of many Icelandic verbs is identical to the infinitive form. So both the infinitive hlusta (“to listen”) and the present Ég hlusta (“I listen”) look the same. You know it’s 1st person because of the pronoun Ég (or from context).