Questions & Answers about Hún er að borða köku og hlusta á hljóðin.
What does Hún mean and how is it used here?
Hún is the third person singular feminine pronoun, meaning “she.” In this sentence it functions as the subject performing the actions (eating and listening).
What does the structure er að + infinitive express?
The combination er að + verb-infinitive gives a progressive meaning, indicating an action in progress right now.
- er = “is” (present tense of to be)
- að borða = “to eat” (infinitive)
So er að borða literally means “is at eating,” i.e. “is eating.”
How would you express the simple present instead of the progressive?
You can drop er að and use the present tense of the main verb:
• Hún borðar köku.
This can mean either “she eats cake (habitually)” or “she eats a cake (right now),” but it lacks the explicit “in-progress” nuance of er að borða.
Why isn’t there a word for “a” before köku?
Icelandic has no separate indefinite article. Indefiniteness is unmarked, so köku by itself means “a cake.” Definite nouns, by contrast, take a suffix (e.g. kökuna = “the cake”).
What case is in and why does it look like that?