Breakdown of Í hlénu drekkum við vatn og hlæjum saman.
Questions & Answers about Í hlénu drekkum við vatn og hlæjum saman.
„Í hlénu“ literally means “in the break” / “during the break”.
- Í = in (or at), and when it indicates location (“where?”), it normally takes the dative case.
- hlé = a break, a pause (neuter noun).
- hlénu = dative singular, definite form of hlé → in *the break*.
Very simplified mini‑paradigm:
- Nominative (sing.): hlé – a break
- Dative (sing., indefinite): hlé – in a break / during a break
- Dative (sing., definite): hlénu – in the break
So í hlénu = in the break (that’s happening now / that we both know about).
Icelandic is very strongly V2 (= verb second) in main clauses:
- Some element comes first (here: the prepositional phrase Í hlénu).
- Then the finite verb (here: drekkum).
- Then usually the subject (here: við).
So the pattern is:
- Í hlénu (1st position)
- drekkum (2nd position = finite verb)
- við vatn og hlæjum saman.
„Í hlénu við drekkum…“ breaks the V2 rule and is ungrammatical in standard Icelandic.
You could also say:
- Við drekkum vatn og hlæjum saman í hlénu.
Here the subject við is in first position, so the verb still stays in second: við drekkum.
The verb drekka (to drink) is conjugated in the present tense as:
- ég drekk – I drink
- þú drekkur – you (sg.) drink
- hann / hún / það drekkur – he / she / it drinks
- við drekkum – we drink
- þið drekkið – you (pl.) drink
- þeir / þær / þau drekka – they drink
The ending ‑um marks 1st person plural present (we).
So drekkum = we drink.
That’s why, with við (we), you need drekkum, not drekkur or drekk.
The infinitive is hlæja = to laugh.
In the present tense:
- ég hlæ – I laugh
- þú hlærð – you laugh
- hann / hún / það hlær – he / she / it laughs
- við hlæjum – we laugh
- þið hlæið – you (pl.) laugh
- þeir / þær / þau hlæja – they laugh
So hlæjum is simply the 1st person plural present form (we laugh), with the regular ‑um ending for við.
Spelling note: that æj sequence is normal and reflects the way the stem changes when endings are added; you just have to memorize these forms for hlæja.
Icelandic does not use a separate word before the noun for “the”.
Instead it usually uses a definite ending attached to the noun:
- vatn – water / a water (indefinite)
- vatnið – the water (definite)
In this sentence you have the bare noun:
- drekkum við vatn = we drink water (in general, unspecific water)
That’s natural here, because it talks about water as a substance in general, not some specific “the water”. Saying drekkum við vatnið would sound like you mean some particular, already-known water (e.g. a specific glass of water).
Yes, that word order is grammatically fine:
- Við drekkum vatn og hlæjum saman í hlénu.
Both versions mean essentially the same thing. The difference is mainly in emphasis / information structure:
Í hlénu drekkum við vatn og hlæjum saman.
→ Slightly more emphasis on when: “During the break, we…”Við drekkum vatn og hlæjum saman í hlénu.
→ Starts with we and what you do; í hlénu just specifies when at the end.
Both are very natural sentences.
saman means “together”.
In this sentence, the most natural reading is that it applies to the whole action described:
- We drink water together and laugh together (as a group activity).
Grammatically, saman is closest to hlæjum (“laugh”), but in everyday interpretation speakers will usually understand it as modifying both actions, unless context clearly says otherwise.
No, these are two different words that just happen to look the same:
við (pronoun) = we
- Always functions as subject or object pronoun.
- Example: við drekkum – we drink.
við (preposition) = at, against, by, with (depending on context)
- Takes the accusative case.
- Example: við borðið – at the table.
In your sentence Í hlénu drekkum við vatn…, við is clearly the pronoun “we”, because it sits where the subject goes and agrees with drekkum (we drink).
vatn is a neuter noun. In the singular, neuter nouns usually have the same form in nominative and accusative:
- Nominative singular: vatn – water
- Accusative singular: vatn – water (same spelling)
Here, vatn is the direct object of drekkum (we drink what? → water), so it’s in the accusative, but it just looks identical to the nominative.
So there is a case change in terms of grammar, but it’s not visible in the form of the word.
Both use the dative with í, but:
- í hlé – in (a) break, during break(s) in a more general / indefinite sense
- í hlénu – in the break, the specific break that both speaker and listener know about (e.g. the school break that is happening now).
In practice:
Talking about breaks in general:
- Við drekkum oft vatn í hlé. – We often drink water during break(s).
Talking about this particular one:
- Í hlénu drekkum við vatn og hlæjum saman. – In the (current / usual) break we drink water and laugh together.
Very rough pronunciation (stressed syllable in CAPS):
- Í – like English “ee” (long)
hlénu – roughly HLYEH-nu
- hl‑ is like l but voiceless, with a little breath at the start.
- é is close to the vowel in English “yeah” but longer.
drekkum – DREK-kum
- e like in “bed”.
- Double kk is a short, strong k sound.
við – like “vith”, where ð is the sound in “this” (voiced “th”).
hlæjum – roughly HLYE-yum
- æ like the “eye” in English “eye”.
- Again hl‑ is that breathy l.
saman – SAH-man
- a like “father”, and main stress on SA.
All Icelandic words are usually stressed on the first syllable.
You’d change the subject pronoun and the verb endings:
- Í hlénu drekk ég vatn og hlæ saman.
Literally: In the break I drink water and laugh together.
More natural Icelandic would often drop “saman” with a singular subject, e.g.:
- Í hlénu drekk ég vatn og hlæ. – In the break I drink water and laugh.
Because saman (“together”) usually implies more than one person doing it jointly.