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Við hittum krakkana við stöðina eftir skóla.

Við hittum krakkana við stöðina eftir skóla.
We meet the kids at the station after school.

Breakdown of Við hittum krakkana við stöðina eftir skóla.

við
we
skóli
the school
eftir
after
hitta
to meet
stöðin
the station
krakkinn
the kid
við
at
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Questions & Answers about Við hittum krakkana við stöðina eftir skóla.

Why are there two instances of við in the sentence?

They’re two different words spelled the same way:

  • The first við is the personal pronoun “we.”
  • The second við is a preposition meaning “at” or “by.”

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What does hittum mean?

hittum is the 1st person plural past tense of hitta, which here means “to meet.” It does not mean “to hit.” So Við hittum … = “We met …”

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Why is krakkana used instead of krakkarnir or krakkar?
  • krakkarnir is nominative (“the kids” as subject).
  • krakkana is accusative of krakkarnir, used because it’s the direct object of hittum.
  • krakkar would be indefinite plural (“kids” in general), but here we mean “the kids.”

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Which case does hitta govern?

hitta always takes a direct object in the accusative case. Hence krakkana (accusative plural).

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Why is stöðina and not stöðinni or stöðin?
  • stöðin is nominative definite.
  • stöðinni is dative definite.
  • stöðina is accusative definite singular.
    Here stöðina follows the preposition við, which in Icelandic takes the accusative case.

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Why does the preposition við take the accusative here instead of the dative?

Most two-way prepositions in Icelandic (á, í, við, undir, yfir, fyrir) take dative for static location and accusative for direction/motion. However, við is an exception that always takes the accusative, even when indicating location.

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Why is it eftir skóla and not eftir skólanum or eftir skólans?
  • eftir (“after”) when used with a time expression takes the dative case of an indefinite noun.
  • The indefinite singular dative of skóli (“school”) is skóla.
  • Using the definite (skólans or skólanum) would imply a specific school; general “after school” is indefinite.

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Can the time or place phrases be moved to the front of the sentence, and if so, does that change anything?

Yes. Icelandic word order allows moving adverbials to the beginning:
“Eftir skóla hittum við krakkana við stöðina.”
This emphasizes “after school,” but the meaning and cases stay the same.