Breakdown of Ýttu á hnappinn til að loka hurðinni.
hurðin
the door
loka
to close
ýta á
to press
hnappurinn
the button
Questions & Answers about Ýttu á hnappinn til að loka hurðinni.
What does ýttu á mean?
ýttu á is the second-person singular imperative of að ýta á, literally “push on.” In this context it means press or push. The preposition á is required with ýta when you specify what you are pushing.
Why is it hnappinn and not hnappur?
Icelandic marks definiteness with suffixes. hnappur is the indefinite form “a button,” while hnappinn is the definite accusative singular “the button.” Because ýttu á takes an accusative object, you use hnappinn to convey “the button.”
Why is hurðinni in the dative case instead of the accusative?
The verb að loka (“to close”) governs a dative object. Thus “to close the door” becomes loka hurðinni, where hurðinni is the definite dative singular of hurð. Even though English uses the same form “the door,” Icelandic must use dative here.
What role does til að play before loka?
til að introduces a purpose clause, equivalent to in order to in English. So til að loka hurðinni literally means in order to close the door, often shortened in English simply to to close the door.