Word
Þau finna ekki lykilinn sinn og þurfa að bíða í bílnum.
Meaning
They cannot find their key and need to wait in the car.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Þau finna ekki lykilinn sinn og þurfa að bíða í bílnum.
bíllinn
the car
ekki
not
í
in
þurfa
to need
Questions & Answers about Þau finna ekki lykilinn sinn og þurfa að bíða í bílnum.
Why is the subject pronoun þau used instead of þeir or þær?
Icelandic has three third-person plural pronouns:
- þeir = they (masculine-only group)
- þær = they (feminine-only group)
- þau = they (neuter plural), used for mixed-gender or unspecified groups, and also for things.
Here, þau is the default when the group isn’t all-male or all-female (or when you just don’t want to specify).
Can þau be used like English singular “they” for one person?
Traditionally, no: þau is plural. In contemporary usage, some people do use þau for a nonbinary person, but that’s not yet standard in formal Icelandic. You’ll also see the gender-neutral singular hán in some contexts.
Why does ekki (not) come after the verb finna?
Main clauses follow a “verb-second” pattern: the finite verb is in second position, and ekki typically comes right after it.
- Correct: Þau finna ekki …
- Not correct: Þau ekki finna …
After the conjunction og, the second clause again uses verb-second: … og þurfa að bíða …
Why is it lykilinn, not something like lykillinn or ?