Breakdown of Ég hætti að bíða og hringi í hana.
ég
I
og
and
bíða
to wait
hana
her
hætta
to stop
hringja í
to call
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Questions & Answers about Ég hætti að bíða og hringi í hana.
Is this sentence in the present or past tense? Hætti looks like past to me.
It’s in the present. Both verbs—hætti (I stop) and hringi (I call)—are present tense. Note that 1st-person singular hætti is ambiguous: it can also be past in isolation. To make it clearly past throughout, you’d say: Ég hætti að bíða og hringdi í hana.
Why is að before bíða?
After hætta (to stop), you use að + infinitive to express “stop doing X.” So: hætta að bíða = stop waiting. Many verbs take this pattern (e.g., byrja að, reyna að).
Why is it í hana and not henni or just hana?
Because the idiom is hringja í e-n (to call someone), literally “ring into someone.” The preposition í takes the accusative here, so í hana (her, acc.). You cannot say just hringi hana, and henni (dative) is wrong in this construction.
Can I add the subject in the second clause: og ég hringi í hana?
Yes. Both Ég hætti að bíða og hringi í hana and Ég hætti að bíða og ég hringi í hana are fine. Icelandic frequently drops a repeated subject in coordinated clauses.
If I mean “stop waiting for her,” shouldn’t it be bíða eftir henni?
Yes. To be explicit: Ég hætti að bíða eftir henni og hringi í hana. With nouns, you can also use the genitive after bíða (e.g., bíða strætisvagnsins = wait for the bus), and with pronouns the genitive would be bíða hennar, though bíða eftir henni is more common.
How would I say it in the past?
Use past forms of both verbs: Ég hætti að bíða og hringdi í hana.
Why is it hringi and not hringja?
Hringi is the 1st-person singular present of hringja. The bare form hringja is the infinitive (used after að, e.g., að hringja). Finite verb in main clauses: ég hringi.
What if I want to say “I stop waiting and calling her” (i.e., I stop both actions)?
Then both complements belong under hætta að and should be infinitives: Ég hætti að bíða og (að) hringja í hana. Contrast this with your sentence, where the second verb is a new finite verb (hringi) meaning a new action you then do.
What’s the case of hana, and what are the other forms of “she/her”?
It’s accusative. Forms of the 3rd-person singular feminine:
- Nominative: hún
- Accusative: hana
- Dative: henni
- Genitive: hennar
Can I use til instead of í with hringja?
For calling a person, the standard is hringja í e-n. You may see hringja til with places/institutions (e.g., hringja til læknisins, til Þýskalands), but for a person the natural choice is í.
Does og here imply sequence (“and then”) or just “and”?
In this context it’s understood as sequential: you stop waiting and then call. You can make the sequence explicit with svo/síðan: Ég hætti að bíða og svo hringi ég í hana.
Pronunciation tips for tricky parts?
- Ég ≈ “yeh-g.”
- hætti: æ like “eye,” short; doubled tt is a strong “t”: ≈ “HYEH-ti.”
- hringi: initial hr is a voiceless r (whispered r); ngj (as in infinitive hringja) is pronounced like “ng-y”: hringi ≈ “HRING-yi.”
- í is long “ee.”
- hana ≈ “HAH-na.”
What if the speaker is female—does anything change?
Not in this sentence. But for the result/state “I have stopped waiting,” Icelandic uses an adjective that agrees with gender:
- Male: Ég er hættur að bíða.
- Female: Ég er hætt að bíða.
Could I move í hana earlier in the clause?
No; keep the prepositional phrase after the verb: (og) hringi í hana. Fronting í hana would be highly marked or ungrammatical here.
Do I need a comma before og?
No. Icelandic doesn’t require a comma before og when simply linking two main clauses like this.