Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég hlusta á píanóið í kvöld.

So hlusta á together means “to listen to (something)”.
If you say just hlusta with no á, it usually means simply “to be listening” in a very general sense, with no stated object, and would sound incomplete here.

There is another verb, heyra, which means “to hear” (a more passive sense):

Ég heyri píanóið. – I hear the piano.
Ég hlusta á píanóið. – I (actively) listen to the piano.

What case is píanóið in, and how can I tell?

Píanóið is in the accusative singular definite.

The basic noun is píanó (neuter).
The definite article is added as a suffix:
- píanó → píanóið = “the piano”.

For neuter nouns like píanó, the nominative and accusative look the same in the indefinite form (píanó), and in the definite too (píanóið can be both nominative and accusative).

So how do we know it’s accusative here?

Because the preposition á with hlusta á always takes the accusative. You often have to learn which case a given preposition (or verb + preposition combination) governs.

Why is it píanóið (“the piano”) and not just píanó (“a piano”)?

Icelandic doesn’t have a separate word for a/an. Instead, you either:

Use the bare noun: píanó
– can mean “a piano” or just “piano” in general.
Or add the definite ending: píanóið
– means “the piano”, a specific piano that speaker/listener can identify from context.

In Ég hlusta á píanóið í kvöld., using píanóið suggests a particular piano:

maybe the piano in your house,
or the one at the concert you’re going to.

If you said Ég hlusta á píanó í kvöld., it would sound more like:

“I’m listening to piano (music) tonight,”
or “I’m listening to a piano tonight,” in a more general, less specific way.

What does í kvöld literally mean, and when do you use it?

Literally, í kvöld is “in the evening”. Idiomatically it means “this evening / tonight” (later today).

You use í kvöld when:

It’s today, and
You mean the coming evening/night (typically after late afternoon until bedtime).

Examples:

Við borðum pizzu í kvöld. – We’re eating pizza tonight.
Hvað ætlarðu að gera í kvöld? – What are you going to do tonight?

Compare:

á kvöldin – “in the evenings” (habitually, on evenings in general)
í kvöld – “tonight / this evening” (one specific evening, usually today)

The English meaning is about the future (“tonight”). Why is the verb hlusta in the present tense?

Icelandic very often uses the simple present to talk about the near future when you also mention a time word like í kvöld:

Ég fer í bíó í kvöld. – I’m going to the cinema tonight.
Ég hitti hann á morgun. – I’m meeting him tomorrow.

So Ég hlusta á píanóið í kvöld. naturally means:

“I’m listening to the piano tonight,” or
“I will listen to the piano tonight.”

You can use more explicitly future-like constructions, e.g.:

Ég ætla að hlusta á píanóið í kvöld. – I intend to listen to the piano tonight.
Ég mun hlusta á píanóið í kvöld. – I will listen to the piano tonight.

But the simple present with í kvöld is completely normal for planned future actions.

Can I say Ég er að hlusta á píanóið í kvöld to mean the same thing?

Not really.

Ég er að hlusta á píanóið is the progressive form:

literally “I am (in the process of) listening to the piano.”
It describes an action happening right now.

Adding í kvöld (tonight) makes it sound like:

“I am in the process of listening to the piano tonight,”
which is odd if the action hasn’t started yet.

Use:

Ég hlusta á píanóið í kvöld. – I’ll listen to the piano tonight.
Ég er að hlusta á píanóið núna. – I am listening to the piano now.

So the progressive er að + infinitive is mainly for ongoing actions, not scheduled future ones.

Can I change the word order, like Í kvöld hlusta ég á píanóið?

Yes, that word order is correct and natural, and it slightly changes the emphasis.

Ég hlusta á píanóið í kvöld.
– neutral order, focus on the whole event.
Í kvöld hlusta ég á píanóið.
– brings “tonight” to the front, emphasizing when it happens (tonight, as opposed to some other time).

Important: Icelandic is a verb-second (V2) language in main clauses. If you put í kvöld first, the verb must still be second:

✅ Í kvöld hlusta ég á píanóið.
❌ Í kvöld ég hlusta á píanóið. (ungrammatical)

Why does á take the accusative here, and not the dative?

The preposition á can govern either accusative or dative, depending on its use:

With location / state: usually dative
- Bókin er á borðinu. – The book is on the table. (dative)
With movement onto / into something: usually accusative
- Hann setur bókina á borðið. – He puts the book on the table. (accusative)

But sometimes the case is simply part of an idiomatic verb + preposition pattern.
Hlusta á is one of those:

hlusta á + accusative = listen to something

So you must say:

Ég hlusta á píanóið. (accusative)
and not
❌ Ég hlusta á píanóinu. (dative – wrong here)

How do you pronounce Ég hlusta á píanóið í kvöld?

A rough IPA transcription (Reykjavík standard) is:

Ég hlusta á píanóið í kvöld
/jɛiːɣ ˈl̥ʏsta auː ˈpʰiːaˌnouːɪð iː kʰvœlt/

Some practical hints:

Ég – roughly like “YAYG” but shorter: ye
- a soft g at the end.
hlusta – the hl is a voiceless l, no audible h; something like “hlusta” with u as in German München (ʏ).
á – like “ow” in cow but longer.
píanóið – pí like “pee”, a like “ah”, nó like “no” (long), and final -ið like “i-th” with a soft th.
í – like a long English “ee”.
kvöld – kv as in kv sound, ö like French eu in peur, and final -ld pronounced roughly lt.

Is there any word like “a” in Icelandic, as in “a piano”?

No. Icelandic has:

no indefinite article (“a/an”),
only a definite article, attached to the noun as an ending.

So:

píanó can mean “a piano” or just “piano”.
píanóið means “the piano”.

If you really want to emphasize “one single piano”, you can use eitt (one):

eitt píanó – one (single) piano.

But in normal sentences, bare píanó covers the meaning of “a piano”.

Does í kvöld ever mean “this afternoon,” or is it only “this evening / tonight”?

Í kvöld is only “this evening / tonight”, not “this afternoon”.

Typical time divisions in everyday Icelandic:

eftir hádegi – afternoon (after noon)
síðdegis – in the late afternoon
í kvöld – this evening / tonight (after late afternoon, into the night)

So Ég hlusta á píanóið í kvöld. is understood as later this evening / tonight, not sometime in the afternoon.

Do I always have to say Ég, or can I drop the subject pronoun?

In standard Icelandic, you normally keep the subject pronoun:

Ég hlusta á píanóið í kvöld. – correct and normal.

Dropping Ég to say:

❓ Hlusta á píanóið í kvöld.

would sound like a note, headline, or command, not a normal full sentence. Icelandic is not a “pro-drop” language like Spanish or Italian; you generally must state the subject.

One more detail: Ég is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence, like any other word. Unlike English “I”, it is not capitalized when it appears in the middle of a sentence.