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Questions & Answers about Veturinn byrjar snemma í ár.
Why is veturinn used instead of vetur?
In Icelandic the definite article is a suffix rather than a separate word. Vetur means “winter” in general (indefinite), while veturinn means “the winter” (definite). Here we refer to this specific winter, so we use the definite form veturinn.
What case and number is veturinn in this sentence?
Veturinn is masculine nominative singular. It’s in the nominative because it functions as the subject of the sentence, and singular because we’re talking about one winter.
How is the verb byrjar formed and what does it mean?
Byrjar is the 3rd person singular present indicative of the verb að byrja, which means “to begin” or “to start.” The present-tense conjugation of að byrja is:
ég byrja (I begin)
þú byrjar (you begin)
hann/hún byrjar (he/she begins)
við byrjum (we begin)
þið byrjið (you all begin)
þeir/þær/þau byrja (they begin)
What does snemma mean, and why does it come after the verb?
Snemma is an adverb meaning “early.” In Icelandic, adverbs of time (and manner) typically follow the verb, so byrjar snemma translates as “begins early.”
What is í ár, and why is it used here?
Í ár literally means “in (the) year” but idiomatically translates as “this year.” The preposition í takes the accusative when indicating a point or period in time, and the neuter noun ár has identical forms in the nominative and accusative singular, so í ár = “this year.”
Could you say á þessu ári or á árinu instead of í ár?
Yes. Á þessu ári (“in this year”) uses the demonstrative þessu plus the definite dative ári, and á árinu (“during the year”) is another option. However, í ár is the most common, concise way to say “this year” in everyday speech.
Is the word order in Veturinn byrjar snemma í ár fixed?
Icelandic follows the V2 rule: the finite verb must be the second element in a main clause. Here Veturinn (subject) is first, byrjar (verb) is second. If you front another element—say Í ár—you must still keep byrjar in the second position:
Í ár byrjar veturinn snemma.
Why isn’t there an að before byrjar like in English “to begin”?
In Icelandic, að marks the infinitive form (e.g. að byrja = “to begin”). Once you conjugate the verb (present, past, etc.), you drop að. Since byrjar is a finite present-tense form, no að is used.
How would you say “The winter has begun early this year” if you wanted to stress that it already started?
You could use the perfect tense:
Veturinn hefur byrjað snemma í ár.
Here hefur is the auxiliary “has,” and byrjað is the past participle of að byrja, so it literally means “The winter has begun early this year.”