Questions & Answers about Við förum í göngutúr á morgun.
Word by word:
- Við – we (1st person plural subject pronoun, nominative case)
- förum – go / are going (present tense, 1st person plural of the verb fara = to go)
- í – in / into / to (preposition; here best translated as for or for a in English: go for a walk)
- göngutúr – walk, stroll (literally something like walking-trip; a noun)
- á – on / at / in (preposition, here used in a time expression)
- morgun – morning; together á morgun is the idiomatic way to say tomorrow
So a very literal gloss is: We go in walk on morning, which in natural English is We are going for a walk tomorrow.
The base (dictionary) form of the verb is fara (to go).
förum is the present tense, 1st person plural form:
- ég fer – I go
- þú ferð – you (singular) go
- hann / hún / það fer – he / she / it goes
- við förum – we go
- þið farið – you (plural) go
- þeir / þær / þau fara – they go
Note the vowel changes: a (in fara) becomes ö (in förum) in the við form, and e in fer. Icelandic has many verbs with such vowel alternations (ablaut).
Icelandic, like English, often uses the present tense with a future time expression to refer to the future.
- Við förum í göngutúr á morgun.
We are going for a walk tomorrow.
The future meaning comes from á morgun (tomorrow), not from a special future tense.
You can make the future even more explicit, for example:
- Við ætlum að fara í göngutúr á morgun.
Literally: We intend to go for a walk tomorrow. - Við munum fara í göngutúr á morgun.
More like We will go for a walk tomorrow.
But the simple present förum with a time adverb is completely natural for plans and scheduled actions.
Í is a very common preposition meaning in / into / to. It can take accusative or dative, depending on meaning:
- Movement / direction → accusative
- Location / state → dative
In Við förum í göngutúr, there is movement (we are going into / for a walk), so í governs the accusative case.
göngutúr is a masculine noun. Its forms:
- Nominative singular: göngutúr
- Accusative singular: göngutúr (same form)
- Dative singular: göngutúr (again the same in the singular)
- Genitive singular: göngutúrs
So here you cannot see the case difference in the form, but grammatically it is accusative because of the movement implied by förum í.
göngutúr is a compound noun:
- ganga – to walk
(there is also a noun ganga = a walk, but that is less common in this collocation) - ganga → göngu (a stem form used in compounds)
- túr – trip, tour, outing (from Danish / Norwegian)
So göngu + túr → göngutúr: literally walking-trip, meaning a walk, a stroll.
Usage:
- fara í göngutúr – to go for a walk (most standard everyday phrase)
- fara í gönguferð – also go for a walk/hike, often sounds a bit more like a hike / walking trip than a quick stroll
In normal conversation, í göngutúr is the default way to say for a walk.
Icelandic does not have an indefinite article (a / an) like English. A bare noun can mean a [something]:
- Ég á hund. – I have a dog.
- Ég kaupi bók. – I am buying a book.
- Við förum í göngutúr. – We are going for a walk.
Definiteness (the walk) is usually marked by a definite suffix attached to the noun, or by hinn / sú / það in more formal styles:
- göngutúrinn – the walk
- Við förum í göngutúrinn á morgun. – We are going for the walk tomorrow. (a specific, known walk)
In your sentence, we just mean a walk in general, so the bare form göngutúr is used.
Yes. Icelandic has a verb-second (V2) word order rule in main clauses: the finite verb usually comes in the second position, but many other parts of the sentence can move around.
Your original:
- Við förum í göngutúr á morgun.
(Subject first, then verb: Við – förum)
You can front the time expression:
- Á morgun förum við í göngutúr.
(Á morgun is first, but the verb förum still comes second.)
Both are correct and natural. Moving á morgun to the front can add a little emphasis to tomorrow.
What you cannot do (in a neutral main clause) is leave the verb later than second position:
- ✗ Á morgun við förum í göngutúr. – wrong in standard Icelandic
Very rough guide (Icelandic pronunciation is quite specific, so this is only approximate):
Við – roughly /vɪːð/
- v like English v
- i like short i in sit, but long
- ð is a soft th as in this, but often very weak at the end
förum – roughly /ˈfœːrʏm/
- ö: between e in her (British) and u in fur
- r is trilled or tapped
- u is short, a bit like u in put
í – /iː/ like a long ee in see
göngutúr – roughly /ˈkœiŋkʏˌtʰuːr/
- Initial g here is unvoiced, sounds closer to k
- ö again like in förum
- ng gives a nasal ng sound
- The t in túr is strongly aspirated, like t in top
á – /au/ like ow in cow
morgun – roughly /ˈmɔr̥kʏn/
- r again trilled or tapped
- g becomes almost a k sound in this cluster
- Final un is short and reduced
Main stress is on the first syllable of each word, especially Við, FÖrum, GÖNgu‑túr, MORgun.
You add ekki (not) after the verb:
- Við förum ekki í göngutúr á morgun.
We are not going for a walk tomorrow.
Basic pattern in a simple sentence:
- Subject – finite verb – ekki – (rest of the sentence)
Examples:
- Við förum ekki. – We are not going.
- Við förum ekki í göngutúr. – We are not going for a walk.
- Við förum ekki í göngutúr á morgun. – We are not going for a walk tomorrow.
You keep the structure of the sentence, but change the subject pronoun and the verb form of fara:
Ég fer í göngutúr á morgun.
I am going for a walk tomorrow.Þú ferð í göngutúr á morgun.
You (singular) are going for a walk tomorrow.Hann fer í göngutúr á morgun.
He is going for a walk tomorrow.Hún fer í göngutúr á morgun.
She is going for a walk tomorrow.Þau fara í göngutúr á morgun.
They (mixed or neuter plural) are going for a walk tomorrow.Þeir fara í göngutúr á morgun.
They (group of men) are going for a walk tomorrow.Þær fara í göngutúr á morgun.
They (group of women) are going for a walk tomorrow.
Only við förum (we go) and þið farið (you plural go) take the ö / i vowel changes; the third person plural (they) uses fara, like the infinitive.