Ég kaupi flugmiða til borgarinnar.

I buy a plane ticket to the city.

Breakdown of Ég kaupi flugmiða til borgarinnar.

• ég: I
• kaupa: to buy
• til: to
• borgin: the city
• flugmiðinn: the plane ticket

Questions & Answers about Ég kaupi flugmiða til borgarinnar.

What tense, person and mood is kaupi, and how would you stress the idea “I am in the process of buying”?

kaupi is the present indicative, 1st person singular of kaupa (“to buy”). It covers both “I buy” and “I am buying,” since Icelandic has no separate continuous aspect. To stress that you’re in the middle of the action, use er að + infinitive:

• Ég kaupi flugmiða til borgarinnar. – I buy / I am buying plane tickets to the city.
• Ég er að kaupa flugmiða til borgarinnar. – I am (right now) in the process of buying plane tickets to the city.

What case is flugmiða, and why does it end in -a?

flugmiða is the indefinite accusative singular of the masculine noun flugmiði (“plane ticket”). Icelandic uses the accusative case for direct objects. A simplified declension of flugmiði (strong masculine, –i stem) is:
• Nominative sg: flugmiði
• Accusative sg (obj.): flugmiða
• Dative sg: flugmiða
• Genitive sg: flugmiða

Why do we say til borgarinnar, and what case is borgarinnar?

The preposition til requires the genitive. borgarinnar is thus the genitive singular definite of borg (“city”). The declension of borg (strong feminine) is:
• Nom. sg: borg / Def. borgin
• Acc. sg: borg / Def. borgina
• Dat. sg: borg / Def. borginni
• Gen. sg: borgar / Def. borgarinnar

How does using til (with genitive) differ from using í (with accusative) to express going “to” a place?

• til + genitive stresses the movement or journey “toward” or “to reach” a destination (common with towns/cities: til Reykjavíkur).
• í + accusative means “into” or “inside” (e.g. í borgina = “into the city”).
For general travel or reaching a place, til + genitive is often the neutral choice.

How do you negate Ég kaupi flugmiða til borgarinnar to say “I am not buying plane tickets to the city”?

Insert ekki (“not”) after the verb (or after the object for emphasis). The simplest negation is:

• Ég kaupi ekki flugmiða til borgarinnar.
  Or with the progressive feel:
• Ég er ekki að kaupa flugmiða til borgarinnar.

How is the letter ð pronounced in flugmiða and borgarinnar?

The letter ð (eth) is a voiced “th” as in English “this” or “that.”

• flugmiða ≈ ˈflʏɣˌmiðah (“FLUG-mee-thah”)
• borgarinnar ≈ pɔrkɪˈraːrɪnar (with rolled r and voiced “th”)