Questions & Answers about Ég kaupi tómata.
“Kaupi” is present tense, 1st person singular of “kaupa” (to buy). Icelandic present can mean both:
- a general/habitual action: I buy tomatoes (regularly)
- an action happening now: I am buying tomatoes If you want to be explicit about an ongoing action, use “vera að” + infinitive: Ég er að kaupa tómata.
“Tómatar” is nominative plural (used for subjects). As a direct object you need accusative plural: “tómata.”
- Subject: Tómatar eru rauðir. (Tomatoes are red.)
- Object: Ég kaupi tómata. (I buy tomatoes.)
Use the accusative singular “tómat”:
- I buy a tomato: Ég kaupi tómat.
- I buy one tomato: Ég kaupi einn tómat. (“einn” = one, masculine accusative)
Icelandic uses a suffixed definite article:
- the tomatoes (acc. pl.): tómatana → Ég kaupi tómatana.
- the tomato (acc. sg.): tómatinn → Ég kaupi tómatinn.
Masculine noun “tómatur” (key forms):
- Singular: nom tómatur, acc tómat, dat tómat(i), gen tómats
- Plural: nom tómatar, acc tómata, dat tómötum, gen tómata
- ég kaupi
- þú kaupir
- hann/hún/það kaupir
- við kaupum
- þið kaupið
- þeir/þær/þau kaupa
- Past (preterite): Ég keypti tómata. (I bought tomatoes.)
- Future-like: Ég mun kaupa tómata. (I will buy tomatoes.) Present can also convey scheduled/near-future in context.
A good approximation: “Yehg KOY-pih TOE-ma-ta.”
- Ég ≈ [jɛːɣ] (often a soft g/fricative; before k it may devoice, sounding close to “yek”)
- kaupi: “au” is the Icelandic diphthong [œy] (not English “ow”); stress on “kau-”
- tómata: “ó” is a long, pure “o” ([ou]); stress on the first syllable: TÓ-ma-ta
Neutral order is Subject–Verb–Object: Ég kaupi tómata. Icelandic is a V2 language, so in main clauses the finite verb tends to appear in second position. Yes/no questions put the verb first:
- Kaupir þú tómata? or colloquially: Kaupirðu tómata?
Place “ekki” after the finite verb:
- Ég kaupi ekki tómata. (I don’t buy tomatoes.)
Yes, they agree in case, number, and gender.
- Adjective: Ég kaupi rauða tómata. (red tomatoes; rauða = acc. pl. masc.)
- Numbers: Ég kaupi tvo tómata. (two tomatoes; “tvo” = acc. masc. of “tveir”) Ég kaupi þrjá tómata. (three tomatoes; “þrjá” = acc. masc. of “þrír”)
Yes, it’s a (weak) verb. Note the vowel change in the past:
- present stem: kaupi-, kaupir…
- past: keypti (Ég keypti), etc. The change “au → ey” plus the -ti ending is regular for this class.
Use “vera að” + infinitive:
- Ég er að kaupa tómata. (clearly progressive/ongoing)
Because of V2, fronted elements push the verb to second position:
- Í búðinni kaupi ég tómata. (In the store, I buy tomatoes.)
- Núna kaupi ég tómata. (Now I’m buying tomatoes.)
- some: Ég kaupi nokkra tómata. (acc. pl. masc. “nokkra”)
- any (in questions): Kaupirðu einhverja tómata?
- no/none: Ég kaupi enga tómata. (acc. pl. masc. “enga”)