Við borðum á sama veitingastað í kvöld.

We eat at the same restaurant tonight.

Breakdown of Við borðum á sama veitingastað í kvöld.

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

Questions & Answers about Við borðum á sama veitingastað í kvöld.

What does við mean, and why is it in this form?

Við means we. It is the 1st person plural nominative pronoun.

• Icelandic personal pronouns change form depending on grammatical case.
• Við is used for the subject of the sentence (the doer of the action).
• Other forms of the same pronoun are:
  • Accusative: okkur (e.g. sjáum okkur – “see us”)
  • Dative: okkur
  • Genitive: okkar (“our / of us”)

Here, við is the subject of borðum, so the nominative form is required.

What tense is borðum, and why can it refer to the future?

Borðum is the present tense, 1st person plural of the verb borða (“to eat”).

• við borðum literally = “we eat”.
• In Icelandic, the present tense is often used for near-future plans, especially when you add a time expression like í kvöld (“this evening / tonight”).

So Við borðum á sama veitingastað í kvöld is structurally present tense, but context (the time phrase) gives it a future meaning, similar to English “We are eating at the same restaurant tonight” or “We’re going to eat…”.

Why is there no word for “will” in this Icelandic sentence?