Questions & Answers about Við borðum kvöldmat í borðstofunni.
What is the function of Við in this sentence? Can I drop it?
Við is the 1st-person plural pronoun meaning we, and it serves as the explicit subject of borðum. In Icelandic, you can often drop the subject pronoun because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action. So Borðum kvöldmat í borðstofunni still means “We eat dinner in the dining room,” but adding Við gives extra clarity or emphasis.
What does borðum mean, and how is að borða conjugated in the present tense?
Borðum is the 1st-person plural present tense of the verb að borða (“to eat”). The present-tense forms of this weak verb are:
• ég borða
• þú borðar
• hann/það borðar
• við borðum
• þið borðið
• þeir/þær/þau borða
Why is it kvöldmat here instead of kvöldmatur?
Kvöldmatur is the nominative (dictionary) form ending in -ur. As the direct object, it must be in the accusative singular. For this masculine u-stem noun, the indefinite accusative ending is -mat. Hence kvöldmat means “dinner” in the sense of “(some) dinner” without the definite article.
Why does borðstofunni end in -unni, and which case is that?