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Questions & Answers about Við borðum saman á veitingastað í seinnipartinn.
Why is there no a/an before veitingastað?
Icelandic does not have a separate indefinite article. Indefinite singular nouns appear without any article. Thus veitingastaður simply means a restaurant. To say the restaurant, you add the definite suffix -inn: veitingastaðurinn (nom.) or veitingastaðnum (dat.).
What case does the preposition á take in á veitingastað?
The preposition á can govern either accusative (movement) or dative (location). Here it indicates a static location (at the restaurant), so it takes the dative case: the nominative veitingastaður becomes dative veitingastað.
Why is the noun written as veitingastað rather than veitingastaður or veitingastaðnum?
We need the indefinite dative singular form.
- veitingastaður is nominative sg.
- Dative sg. indefinite: drop -ur, add -i → veitingastað.
- If it were definite (the restaurant), you'd use veitingastaðnum.
Why is borðum used here instead of another form?
borðum is the present tense, first person plural of borða (to eat). Icelandic verbs conjugate for person and number. The present-tense paradigm for borða is:
ég borða, þú borðar, hann/hún borðar, við borðum, þið borðið, þeir borða.
What does saman mean, and why does it come after the verb?
saman means together. As an adverb of manner, it typically follows the verb it modifies. So við borðum saman literally means we eat together.
Why is seinnipartinn in the definite form (ending with -inn)?
Many Icelandic time expressions use the definite form. The base seinnipartur (“later part/late afternoon”) becomes definite seinniparturinn, and after the preposition í, in accusative, it’s seinnipartinn.
Could you use um instead of í in í seinnipartinn, and would the meaning change?
Yes, you could say um seinnipartinn. Both í seinnipartinn and um seinnipartinn translate to in/around the late afternoon. Choice between í and um often depends on idiomatic preference; any nuance is minimal.
Can you omit the pronoun við in this sentence?
Yes. Because Icelandic verbs carry person and number endings, borðum alone implies we. You could say Borðum saman á veitingastað í seinnipartinn, and the meaning remains We eat together at a restaurant in the late afternoon.