Veitingastaðurinn sem við borðuðum á var rólegur.

to be

Breakdown of Veitingastaðurinn sem við borðuðum á var rólegur.

• borða: to eat
• við: we
• veitingastaðurinn: the restaurant

Questions & Answers about Veitingastaðurinn sem við borðuðum á var rólegur.

Why is the preposition á at the end of the clause (sem við borðuðum á)?

Icelandic allows (and, with sem, typically requires) preposition stranding in relative clauses. The preposition stays with the verb phrase instead of moving in front of sem. So you say sem við borðuðum á, not something like á sem. A very natural alternative that avoids stranding is to use the locative relative adverb: Veitingastaðurinn þar sem við borðuðum var rólegur (“the restaurant where we ate was quiet”).

Can I say something like “the restaurant at which we ate,” i.e., á sem við borðuðum?

No. In modern Icelandic, sem is a complementizer (not an inflected relative pronoun), so a preposition cannot directly precede it. You either strand the preposition (sem við borðuðum á) or switch to the “where”-construction (þar sem við borðuðum).

What’s the word order inside the sem-clause? Could it be borðuðum við á?

Inside a sem-clause, the regular embedded word order is Subject–Verb–(Object/PP). So you get sem við borðuðum á. The inversion borðuðum við is used for main-clause questions (and some special embedded V2 contexts), not here.

What case does the missing noun have after á?