Breakdown of Frídagurinn á morgun kemur mér á óvart.
á morgun
tomorrow
mér
me
frídagurinn
the day off
koma á óvart
to surprise
Questions & Answers about Frídagurinn á morgun kemur mér á óvart.
Why does frídagurinn end with -inn? Isn’t frídagur enough?
In Icelandic the definite article is a suffix attached to the noun. frídagurinn = frídagur (holiday) + -inn (the). Since we’re talking about a specific holiday (“the holiday tomorrow”), you use the definite form. Using frídagur alone would be indefinite (“a holiday tomorrow”) and sounds less natural here.
What does á morgun mean, and why is it á rather than í?
á morgun means “tomorrow.” Icelandic uses different prepositions for “this morning” ( í morgun ) and “tomorrow” ( á morgun ). If you said í morgun, you’d be referring to “this morning,” not the day after today.
Why is mér in the dative case? Could I say mig instead?
The verb-phrase koma e-m á óvart (“to surprise someone”) requires the person surprised to be in the dative. mér is the dative form of ég (“I”). mig is the accusative form, which would be ungrammatical in this construction.
What is the literal structure of kemur mér á óvart? How would you translate it word for word?
Literally it’s comes (kemur) + to me (mér) + as a surprise (á óvart). So word-for-word: “comes to me as a surprise.” Idiomatically it means “it surprises me.”