Breakdown of Staðfestingin var send í gær.
Questions & Answers about Staðfestingin var send í gær.
- Lemma: staðfesting (confirmation)
- Gender: feminine (most -ing nouns are feminine)
- Number: singular
- Case: nominative (it’s the subject)
- Definiteness: definite (the suffixed article -in) So staðfesting + -in → staðfestingin = the confirmation (subject, nominative singular).
In the passive with vera (to be), the past participle behaves like an adjective and agrees with the subject in gender, number, and case.
- Masculine singular nominative: sendur
- Feminine singular nominative: send
- Neuter singular nominative: sent Here the subject Staðfestingin is feminine singular nominative, so the correct form is send.
Var is the past tense (3rd person singular) of vera (to be). Vera + past participle forms the passive:
- Present: er send (is sent)
- Past: var send (was sent)
- Future: verður send (will be sent)
- Present perfect: hefur verið send (has been sent)
Yes, it’s the (personal) passive. An active version needs an agent as the subject and the object in the accusative:
- Active: Þau sendu staðfestinguna í gær. (They sent the confirmation yesterday.) Note the object becomes staðfestinguna (definite accusative singular). In the passive, that object is promoted to subject: Staðfestingin var send…
Yes. Icelandic is a V2 language: the finite verb must be in second position.
- Neutral: Staðfestingin var send í gær.
- With time first: Í gær var staðfestingin send. Avoid: Í gær staðfestingin var send (wrong, verb not in 2nd position).
Í gær is a fixed adverbial meaning “yesterday.” Gær is an adverb here, not a noun, and the phrase is idiomatic. Related time phrases:
- í dag (today)
- í gærmorgun (yesterday morning)
- í gærkvöldi (last night) Note: “tomorrow” is á morgun, not í morgun (which means “this morning”).
Staðfestingarnar voru sendar í gær.
- Staðfestingarnar = the confirmations (feminine plural nominative definite)
- voru = past plural of vera
- sendar = feminine plural nominative of the participle agreeing with the subject
Use af + dative for the “by”-phrase:
- Staðfestingin var send af Jóni í gær. (by Jón)
- Staðfestingin var send af Ólöfu í gær. (by Ólöf; dative: Ólöfu) Be careful: frá means “from” (origin), not the agent of a passive.
Yes, but not with í gær.
- Staðfestingin hefur verið send = “The confirmation has been sent” (result relevant now; time unspecified).
- With a specific past time like í gær, use simple past: Staðfestingin var send í gær. Avoid: hefur verið send í gær (unnatural, like English “has been sent yesterday”).
The verb senda has the irregular past participle stem send-:
- Past participle: sendur/send/sent (not sendað) Contrast with many regular verbs that do take -að, e.g., loka – lokað (to close – closed).
Yes, that’s the impersonal passive:
- Það var sent staðfestingu í gær. Here there is no promoted subject; the thing sent stays in the accusative (staðfestingu), and the participle appears in neuter singular (sent). Contrast:
- Personal passive (your original): Staðfestingin var send í gær. (patient promoted to nominative subject; participle agrees: send)
- Stress is on the first syllable of Staðfestingin: STAÐ-fest-ing-in.
- ð in stað- is the voiced th-sound (as in “this”).
- g in -ingin is pronounced with ng as a cluster [ŋg] before vowels.
- í is long [iː]. Say it smoothly: STAÐ-fes-ting-in var send ee g-eh-r.