Breakdown of Mér líður öruggt heima þegar einhver er vakandi.
Questions & Answers about Mér líður öruggt heima þegar einhver er vakandi.
In Icelandic, feelings and states are often expressed with an impersonal construction where the person is in the dative case, not nominative.
- Mér = dative of ég (“I” → “to me / for me”).
- líður is the verb “to feel (in terms of well‑being)”.
So Mér líður … is literally “To me feels …”, which is idiomatic Icelandic for “I feel …”.
You cannot say *Ég líður öruggt. With líða in this sense, the experiencer must be in dative:
- Mér líður vel. – I feel good.
- Honum líður illa. – He feels bad.
- Okkur líður vel heima. – We feel good at home.
So Mér líður öruggt … is the normal pattern: [dative person] + líður + how they feel.
Here líður is 3rd person singular present of líða in the meaning “to feel (in terms of well‑being or condition)”.
Basic pattern with this meaning:
[dative person] + líður + adverb/adjectival word
Examples:
- Mér líður vel. – I feel well.
- Henni líður hræðilega. – She feels terrible.
- Krókódílnum líður vel í sólinni. – The crocodile feels good in the sun.
The same verb líða can also mean “to pass” (about time), but that’s a different use:
- Tíminn líður hratt. – Time passes quickly.
In your sentence, only the “feel” meaning is relevant.
Öruggt is the neuter singular form of the adjective öruggur (“safe, secure”).
- Base form (masc. nom. sg.): öruggur
- Feminine nom. sg.: örugg
- Neuter nom./acc. sg.: öruggt
Spelling with ggt comes from Icelandic sound/spelling rules: when ‑gur adjectives form the neuter, they often become ‑gt in writing:
- sanngjarn → neuter sanngjarnt
- öruggur → neuter öruggt
So öruggt is the correct neuter form, not *örugt or *örugur in this position.
With mér líður …, Icelandic very often uses the neuter singular form of adjectives, functioning a bit like an adverb (“safely, securely”) rather than agreeing in gender with “I”.
Compare:
Ég er öruggur. (male) / Ég er örugg. (female) – “I am safe / secure.”
→ Here the adjective agrees in gender with ég.Mér líður öruggt. – “I feel safe.”
→ Here öruggt is neuter singular, used more adverbially: “I feel in a safe way / I feel safe.”
So the neuter here is a default “manner” form, not agreeing with the person’s gender. The same happens with many adjectives when they describe how something feels or happens.
You’ll also see:
- Mér líður óþægilega. – I feel uncomfortable. (adverb in ‑lega)
- Mér líður vel. – I feel well. (pure adverb)
Öruggt in this sentence plays the same kind of role.
Yes, Ég er öruggur heima … (male) / Ég er örugg heima … (female) is grammatically fine, but the nuance is slightly different:
Mér líður öruggt heima …
– Focuses on how you feel at that moment. It’s a subjective, internal state.Ég er öruggur/örugg heima …
– Describes you as being in a safe condition, more like a factual statement of safety, and can sound a bit more “objective” or characteristic.
In everyday speech, both can be used to talk about feeling safe, but Mér líður öruggt … is the more direct way to express your current feeling.
These are closely related but not interchangeable:
heima – “at home” (location, where you are)
- Mér líður öruggt heima. – I feel safe at home.
heim – “(to) home” (direction, where you are going)
- Ég fer heim. – I’m going (to) home.
heima hjá mér – “at my home / at my place”
- More explicit that it’s your home.
- Mér líður öruggt heima hjá mér. – I feel safe at my place (emphasis on my).
In your sentence, heima alone is natural and usually understood as “at home (my home)”, unless context suggests otherwise.
Þegar means “when / whenever” and introduces a time clause:
- … þegar einhver er vakandi.
– “when someone is awake” (at the time someone is awake).
Af því að means “because” and introduces a reason:
- Mér líður öruggt heima af því að einhver er vakandi.
– “I feel safe at home because someone is awake.”
Your original sentence with þegar mainly states the time/situation in which you feel safe. It can imply a reason, but grammatically it’s a time clause, not a “because”-clause.
Both structures are possible but slightly different in focus:
- þegar → when/whenever
- af því að → because
Einhver is an indefinite pronoun meaning “someone / some person” in the singular.
- einhver – someone (sg.)
- einhverjir – some people (pl.), “several”
In your sentence:
- einhver er vakandi – “someone is awake” (at least one person, unspecified who).
If you wanted to emphasize that several people are awake, you could say:
- þegar einhverjir eru vakandi – when some people are awake.
But for the usual English “when someone is awake”, singular einhver is the natural choice.
All involve the root idea “to be awake”, but with different nuances:
er vakandi
- vakandi is a present participle meaning “awake” as a state.
- einhver er vakandi ≈ “someone is awake” (is not sleeping).
er að vaka
- að vaka is the verb “to stay awake / be awake (for a period, often deliberately)”.
- einhver er að vaka = “someone is (staying) awake / is up (not sleeping)”.
- Often implies an activity or conscious decision to stay awake, e.g. staying up late.
er vakinn
- vakinn is the past participle of vekja (“to wake (someone) up”) → “woken (up)”.
- Hann er vakinn. can mean “He has been woken up / He is awake (because someone woke him)”.
- Focus on the result of being woken, not just the general state.
For a neutral “is awake” in your sentence, er vakandi is the most straightforward and idiomatic choice.
In modern Icelandic punctuation, you do not need a comma before þegar in a simple sentence like this. So both:
- Mér líður öruggt heima þegar einhver er vakandi.
- Mér líður öruggt heima, þegar einhver er vakandi.
are possible, but the version without the comma is more typical and slightly more natural here.
As for word order inside the clause:
- þegar is a subordinating conjunction, not an adverb that triggers verb‑second.
The normal order is subject–verb–rest:
- þegar einhver er vakandi – when someone is awake.
You should not say *þegar er einhver vakandi; that would be ungrammatical.