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Questions & Answers about Mig langar í mjúka stólinn.
Why does this sentence use mig langar instead of ég vil?
- langar is an impersonal verb (“to long for, to feel like”), not a personal 1st-person verb.
- It never takes a nominative subject (ég); instead the experiencer goes in the accusative (or sometimes dative), hence mig.
- By contrast, vil (“want”) is a regular 1st-person verb and would be used with ég as its subject: Ég vil stólinn (“I want the chair”).
Why is mig (accusative) used instead of ég (nominative) or mér (dative)?
- Impersonal verbs like langar put the person feeling the desire into the object case.
- You will often see mér langar in more formal or written Icelandic (dative), but colloquially mig langar (accusative) is extremely common.
- You cannot use ég here because that’s reserved for true subjects of personal verbs.
When do you use langar í + noun versus langar að + verb?
- Use langar í + [accusative noun] to express “I want/have a craving for something.”
e.g. Mig langar í ís (“I feel like (eating) ice cream.”) - Use langar að + [infinitive] to express “I want to do something.”
e.g. Mig langar að borða ís (“I feel like eating ice cream.”)
What case does í govern in this sentence, and why?
- Here í is part of the idiom langar í. It always takes the accusative.
- In general, í + accusative often signals a dynamic or “toward” sense; with langar it simply frames the thing desired.
Why is stólinn in the definite form (ending in -inn) instead of just stóll?
- English “the soft chair” is specific, so Icelandic marks definiteness by adding the suffix -inn for a masculine singular noun:
stóll → stólinn (“the chair”).
Why is the adjective mjúka and not the dictionary form mjúkur?
- Adjectives agree in gender, number and case.
- After í + accusative, adjectives take the strong declension, even if the noun is definite.
- Masculine singular strong accusative of mjúkur is mjúka, so you get mjúka stólinn.
How would you say “I want a soft chair” (an indefinite chair) in Icelandic?
- Use the indefinite accusative strong forms:
Mig langar í mjúkan stól.
(Here mjúkan is masculine singular strong accusative of mjúkur, and stól is indefinite.)
Where do you put ekki to make it negative (“I don’t want the soft chair”)?
- Ekki normally follows the verb phrase:
Mig langar ekki í mjúka stólinn.
How would you ask “Do you want the soft chair?” using this structure?
- Invert verb and experiencer pronoun, keeping the same cases:
Langar þig í mjúka stólinn? - (Or more formally with dative: Langar þér í mjúka stólinn?)
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