Breakdown of Hún biður um leyfi til að fara fyrr.
Questions & Answers about Hún biður um leyfi til að fara fyrr.
- að biðja um e-ð (acc.) = to ask for something. Example: Hún biður um leyfi (She asks for permission).
- að spyrja (e-n) um e-ð / að spyrja (e-n) = to ask (someone) a question or to ask about something. Example: Hún spyr hvort hún megi fara fyrr (She asks whether she may leave early). Using spyrja here would change the meaning to “ask about permission,” not “ask for permission.”
leyfi is a neuter noun that is the same in nominative, accusative, and dative singular. Its genitive singular and plural forms change:
- Singular: nom/acc/dat leyfi, gen leyfis
- Plural: nom/acc leyfi, dat leyfum, gen leyfa Here, um demands the accusative, so it’s accusative singular leyfi (unchanged in form).
Yes. Hún biður um að fara fyrr = “She asks to leave early.” It usually implies asking for permission, but it doesn’t explicitly mention “permission.”
Hún biður um leyfi til að fara fyrr makes the permission explicit and a bit more formal/clear.
Icelandic says “permission to do something” as leyfi til að + infinitive. The til is required here; leyfi að fara is ungrammatical.
A slightly more explicit variant is leyfi til þess að fara (literally “permission for that to go”).
til að + infinitive introduces a purpose clause (“in order to”). When til is followed by að + verb, it’s part of this fixed construction, not followed by a noun, so you don’t see a genitive noun after it.
If til takes a noun, it requires the genitive: e.g., leyfi til brottfarar (“permission for departure,” genitive brottfarar).
- Present: ég bið, þú biður, hún biður, við biðjum, þið biðjið, þau biðja
- Past (3rd person): hún bað (she asked), þau báðu (they asked)
- Supine/participle used with “have”: hún hefur beðið (she has asked) This verb is irregular (stem changes: bið- / bað- / beð-).
fara can mean “to go” or “to leave,” depending on context; here it’s “leave.”
- fyrr = “earlier/sooner,” i.e., earlier than some usual or expected time.
- snemma = “early” in an absolute sense (not comparative).
Since the idea is “earlier than usual” (leave early), fara fyrr is the natural choice.
- fyrr: adverb, “earlier/sooner” (comparative). Example: að fara fyrr (to leave earlier).
- fyrir: preposition “for/before/because of” (takes different cases depending on meaning). Not used here.
- fyrri: comparative adjective “former/earlier” used with nouns. Example: á fyrri árum (in former years). Don’t mix up fyrr (adverb) with fyrir (preposition).
Use the pattern biðja e-n (ACC) um e-ð:
- Hún biður yfirmanninn um leyfi til að fara fyrr.
“yfirmanninn” (the boss) is the person being asked, in the accusative.
Yes, very common and natural:
- Má ég fara fyrr? (May I leave early?)
- Get ég farið fyrr? (Can I leave early?)
- Er í lagi að ég fari fyrr? (Is it okay if I leave early?)
Your original sentence is fine, just a bit more formal/explicit.
- Past: Hún bað um leyfi til að fara fyrr.
- Progressive-like (ongoing): Hún er að biðja um leyfi til að fara fyrr.
- Future-like: Hún mun biðja um leyfi til að fara fyrr.
leyfið means “the permit/the permission” (definite). In the abstract sense (“permission” in general), Icelandic usually uses the indefinite leyfi.
Use leyfið when referring to a specific permit/document, e.g., Hún biður um leyfið = “She asks for the (specific) permit.”
Yes:
- Hún biður um það að fara fyrr. (natural, though often the það is omitted)
- Hún biður um leyfi til þess að fara fyrr. (perfectly idiomatic; til þess að is a common variant of til að)
- Hún: long ú (like “oo” in “food”).
- biður: ð is like the “th” in “this.”
- leyfi: ey sounds like “ay” in “say”; the f between vowels is pronounced like a v.
- fara: clear rolled/trilled r.
- fyrr: double consonant effect shortens the preceding vowel; the y is a fronted “u”-like sound.