Breakdown of Lyftan er biluð í dag, svo við þurfum að ganga upp stigann.
Questions & Answers about Lyftan er biluð í dag, svo við þurfum að ganga upp stigann.
Lyfta means an elevator / a lift (indefinite), while Lyftan means the elevator / the lift (definite).
In Icelandic, the definite article (the) is usually attached to the end of the noun as a suffix:
- lyfta = elevator (feminine noun)
- lyfta
- -n → lyftan = the elevator (subject here, in nominative case)
So Lyftan er biluð = The elevator is broken (not just “an elevator is broken”).
Lyfta is a feminine noun. Icelandic adjectives and past participles must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.
The past participle of bila (to break down) is:
- masculine: bilaður
- feminine: biluð
- neuter: bilað
Because lyfta is feminine singular nominative, we must use the feminine singular nominative form biluð:
- Lyftan er biluð. = The elevator (f.) is broken.
- bila is the verb “to break down / malfunction”.
- biluð is its feminine past participle, used like an adjective: broken / out of order.
- bilaður is the masculine form, which would be used with a masculine noun.
- bilun is a noun meaning a breakdown / a failure, not an adjective.
So:
- Lyftan er biluð. → The elevator is broken (adjective-like participle).
- Það varð bilun í lyftunni. → There was a breakdown in the elevator.
Yes, Lyftan virkar ekki í dag is completely natural and very common.
Nuance:
Lyftan er biluð í dag.
Emphasizes that the elevator is broken / out of order (it has a fault).Lyftan virkar ekki í dag.
Literally “the elevator does not work today” – focuses more on the result (it’s not working), without necessarily stressing the idea of a mechanical “breakdown”.
In everyday speech, both are fine and often interchangeable.
Í dag means today. In the sentence:
- Lyftan er biluð í dag = The elevator is broken today.
This is a very natural position: adverb (í dag) comes after the verb phrase.
You can move í dag for emphasis, and all of these are grammatical:
- Í dag er lyftan biluð. (Today, the elevator is broken.)
- Lyftan er í dag biluð. (More marked; often written style.)
The original word order is the most neutral and typical in speech.
Here, svo is a conjunction meaning roughly so / therefore / so that.
- Lyftan er biluð í dag, svo við þurfum að ganga upp stigann.
= The elevator is broken today, so we have to walk up the stairs.
Common related words:
- svo – often “so / therefore” as a connector.
- þess vegna – “therefore / because of that” (a bit more formal/explicit).
- þannig að – “so that / in such a way that”.
In this sentence, svo is very natural and colloquial, like English so introducing a consequence.
The structure is:
- við = we
- þurfum = we need / we have to (þurfa, 1st person plural)
- að ganga = to walk (infinitive: ganga)
Þurfa works like English need to / have to and is followed by að + infinitive:
- Ég þarf að ganga. – I need to walk.
- Við þurfum að ganga. – We need / have to walk.
Conjugation of þurfa (present):
- ég þarf
- þú þarft
- hann / hún / það þarf
- við þurfum
- þið þurfið
- þeir / þær / þau þurfa
Að is used before the infinitive of a verb in Icelandic in many constructions, similar to to in English:
- English: we have to walk
- Icelandic: við þurfum að ganga
So the pattern is:
- að
- infinitive verb → að ganga, að fara, að borða, etc.
You don’t use að with a finite verb (already conjugated), only with the infinitive in these cases.
The base form is stigi = a stair / a staircase (masculine noun).
In að ganga upp stigann:
- upp = up
- stiga = accusative singular of stigi
- stigi
- -inn (definite article) → stiginn (nom.)
Accusative definite form: stigann
- -inn (definite article) → stiginn (nom.)
So:
- stigi – a staircase (nom. sg., indefinite)
- stigann – the staircase, as a direct object in accusative.
Because you are moving up the stairs (motion along / onto something), Icelandic typically uses the accusative with direction, hence stigann.
Both word orders can occur, but the most natural and common is:
- ganga upp stigann – walk up the stairs.
Preposition + noun:
- upp stigann = up the stairs.
You might occasionally hear ganga stigann upp, but it sounds less natural and more marked. With simple motion verbs, Icelandic normally keeps preposition + noun together: upp stigann, niður stigann, inn í húsið, etc.
Ganga upp stigann is perfectly natural and quite standard:
- ganga – to walk (also “to go”, in some fixed phrases)
Other options:
- fara upp stigann – go up the stairs (neutral, very common).
- labba upp stigann – walk up the stairs (more colloquial / informal; labba is like “to walk” in casual speech).
All three are understandable and correct; ganga and fara are slightly more neutral, labba more spoken and informal.
The comma before svo is normal because svo introduces a new clause:
- Lyftan er biluð í dag,
svo við þurfum að ganga upp stigann.
Icelandic comma rules are similar to older / more formal English usage:
- It’s common to put a comma before conjunctions like en (but), því að (because), svo (so), especially when they link two independent clauses.
So the comma here is both correct and natural.
Key points (approximate English comparisons):
- Lyftan – Lyf- with a short i sound (like lift), and -tan with clear t. Stress on Lyf.
- er – like English air, but shorter.
- biluð – bi- like short i in bit; -luð: the ð is a soft th (like this), often very light at the end.
- í dag – í like long ee; dag with a hard g (like dahg).
- svo – roughly like svoh (one syllable).
- við – v as in English; ið like i
- soft th.
- þurfum – þ is a voiceless th (like thing); ur like u in fur but shorter; fum like fʏm (rounded vowel).
- að – vowel like short a in father
- soft ð (like this).
- ganga – g is hard; an almost like own-ga but with Icelandic a and ng [ŋ]; stress on gan-.
- upp – like oop but shorter; pp clearly doubled.
- stigann – sti like sti in sting, then -gann with hard g and doubled n.
Stress in Icelandic is almost always on the first syllable of each word.