Breakdown of Ég held að einhver sé í garðinum.
Questions & Answers about Ég held að einhver sé í garðinum.
Ég held literally means I think or I believe.
- The infinitive form is að halda = to think / to believe / to hold.
- held is the present tense, 1st person singular:
- ég held – I think
- þú heldur – you think
- hann/hún/það heldur – he/she/it thinks
- við höldum – we think
- þið haldið – you (pl.) think
- þeir/þær/þau halda – they think
So Ég held is the natural way to start a clause meaning I think (that)….
Yes. að here is a subordinating conjunction, very close in function to English that.
- Ég held að… = I think that…
- It introduces a subordinate clause: að einhver sé í garðinum (that someone is in the garden).
Just as English that can often be dropped, spoken Icelandic sometimes drops að, but að is more often kept than English that. So:
- Ég held að einhver sé í garðinum – fully normal and clear.
- Ég held einhver sé í garðinum – possible, more speech-like.
sé is the present subjunctive of vera (to be).
- er = present indicative (factual, neutral): einhver er í garðinum – someone is in the garden.
- sé = present subjunctive (non‑factual, uncertain, reported, wished, etc.): að einhver sé í garðinum – that someone be / is (maybe) in the garden.
After verbs like:
- ég held – I think (not 100% sure)
- ég vona – I hope
- ég óttast – I fear
Icelandic normally uses the subjunctive, because the statement is not presented as a bare fact, but as a belief, hope, fear, etc. That’s why you see sé here.
You will sometimes hear er in everyday speech, especially from non‑careful speakers, but:
- Standard, correct form: Ég held að einhver sé í garðinum.
- Using er here is generally considered non‑standard or less correct.
So if you’re learning the language, treat Ég held að einhver sé í garðinum as the form to imitate.
einhver is an indefinite pronoun that can translate as:
- someone
- anyone
- sometimes a certain person, depending on context.
In this sentence, einhver most naturally means someone:
- Ég held að einhver sé í garðinum.
→ I think (that) someone is in the garden.
About its form:
- Nominative singular: einhver (for masculine and feminine), einhvert (for neuter).
- It declines for case, number and gender, but in this sentence it’s nominative singular, the subject of sé.
í garðinum breaks down like this:
- í = in (a preposition)
- garðinum = the garden in the dative singular.
Two key points:
í can govern either accusative (motion into) or dative (location in):
- Ég fer í garðinn. – I go into the garden. (accusative: garðinn)
- Ég er í garðinum. – I am in the garden. (dative: garðinum)
In sé í garðinum, the meaning is location, so dative is used.
garður is the base noun (a garden).
garðinum is definite dative singular = in the garden (a specific garden already known from context).
So í garðinum literally means in the garden, not just in a garden.
The að‑clause here is:
- að [einhver] [sé] [í garðinum]
Inside this clause, the word order is basically Subject – Verb – Rest:
- Subject: einhver (someone)
- Finite verb: sé (is, subjunctive)
- Prepositional phrase: í garðinum (in the garden)
So the structure is regular:
- Ég held (main clause: subject + verb)
- að einhver sé í garðinum (subordinate clause: subject + verb + complement)
The main difference from English is not the order, but the verb form (sé vs. English indicative is).
Yes, this is possible and grammatical:
- Ég held að það sé einhver í garðinum.
Here það is an expletive / dummy subject, similar to English there in there is someone in the garden.
Nuances:
- Ég held að einhver sé í garðinum.
Focus: on some particular “someone” who is in the garden. - Ég held að það sé einhver í garðinum.
Focus: on the existence of someone in the garden (there is someone or other in the garden).
Both are fine; the original sentence without það is very natural.
For a past‑time meaning, both the main verb and the verb in the að‑clause usually shift:
Present:
Ég held að einhver sé í garðinum.
→ I think (now) that someone is (now) in the garden.Past:
Ég hélt að einhver væri í garðinum.
→ I thought (then) that someone was (then) in the garden.
Changes:
- held → hélt (past of að halda)
- sé → væri (past subjunctive of vera)
The use of the subjunctive continues, but in its past form (væri).
Approximate pronunciation (IPA and rough English hints):
Ég – /jɛːɣ/
- Starts with a y‑sound /j/.
- Final consonant is a soft, voiced fricative /ɣ/ (like a soft, voiced kh).
held – /hɛlt/
- Clear h, then e like in get.
að – /að/
- Final ð is like the th in this.
einhver – /ˈei̥n̥kvʏr/ (varies by speaker)
- ein‑ roughly like English ane in aneurysm.
- hv can sound like kv or hw depending on dialect; ʏ is a short, rounded vowel between u and i.
sé – /sjɛː/
- sj is like sh but more s‑like; é is long, close to yeh.
í – /iː/
- Long ee.
garðinum – /ˈkarðɪnʏm/
- g here is hard /k/.
- ð again like English th in this.
- Final -um is a short, reduced vowel sound.
Said smoothly:
[jɛːɣ hɛlt að ˈei̥n̥kvʏr sjɛː iː ˈkarðɪnʏm]
Both exist, but they’re used a bit differently:
Ég held að… = I think / I believe that…
- More about belief, assumption, opinion.
Mér finnst að… (or just Mér finnst…) = literally It seems to me that… / I feel that…
- Often used for personal impressions, subjective opinions (how something seems, feels, looks to you).
In the sentence you gave, Ég held að einhver sé í garðinum is the natural choice: you are stating what you believe about a factual situation.