Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Á virkum dögum vakna allir snemma og eru ennþá mjög þreyttir í strætó. - On weekdays everyone wakes up early and is still very tired on the bus.

á = on / in / at
virkum = dative plural of virkur
- virkur (adj.) can mean active, but in this fixed combination virkir dagar = working days / weekdays.
- Dative plural masculine: virkir → virkum.
dögum = dative plural of dagur (day)
- Nominative plural: dagar
- Dative plural: dögum

The preposition á governs dative plural here because we are talking about a repeated time frame (on weekdays in general), so both words appear in the dative plural: á virkum dögum.

Why is it á virkum dögum and not something like á virka daga or á virkir dagar?

Three different things are going on here:

Case after the preposition á
- á + dative usually means “on / in (state, location, time frame)”.
- á + accusative often means “onto / to (movement)” or a specific single time.
Dative plural for recurring days
For recurring, habitual events on certain days, Icelandic very often uses dative plural:
- Á mánudögum fer ég í ræktina. = I go to the gym on Mondays.
- Á virkum dögum vakna allir snemma. = On weekdays, everyone wakes up early.
So á virkum dögum (dative pl.) fits the pattern “on X-days (generally, regularly)”.
What about á virka daga?
- virka daga is accusative plural, and á virka daga is also heard and understood as “on workdays / on weekdays”.
- Many speakers feel á virkum dögum is a bit more idiomatic and neutral here, but á virka daga is not wrong in everyday speech.

Á virkir dagar would be ungrammatical, because á must be followed by a case governed form, and virkir dagar is nominative, not governed by a preposition.

Why does the verb vakna come before allir? Could I say Allir vakna snemma á virkum dögum instead?

Icelandic is a verb‑second (V2) language in main clauses, like German. That means:

Exactly one element comes first (here: Á virkum dögum).
Then the finite verb (here: vakna) must be in second position.
The subject allir comes after the verb.

So:

Á virkum dögum vakna allir snemma …
1. Fronted time phrase = Á virkum dögum
2. Finite verb = vakna
3. Subject = allir

If you start with the subject, you still keep V2:

Allir vakna snemma á virkum dögum …
1. Subject = Allir
2. Finite verb = vakna

Both sentences are grammatical; the difference is just which element you want to emphasise or foreground (time vs. subject).

Why is the subject allir and not something like alla or öll?

Allir is the nominative plural form of allur when referring to a group of people (masculine / mixed group):

allur (m. sg. nom.)
öll (f. sg. nom. / n. pl. nom.)
allt (n. sg. nom.)
allir (m. pl. nom.)

In this sentence, allir stands for “everyone / everybody”, but grammatically it is plural, so it takes the plural verb vakna and later the predicate adjective þreyttir (also masculine plural).

allir vakna = everyone (they) wake up
þeir eru þreyttir = they are tired

alla would be accusative or feminine plural, and cannot be the subject here.

What exactly is the difference between vakna and vekja? Why is vakna used here?

vakna = to wake up (oneself), intransitive
- Ég vakna klukkan sjö. = I wake up at seven.
vekja = to wake (someone else) up, transitive
- Ég vek barnið klukkan sjö. = I wake the child at seven.

In the sentence:

vakna allir snemma = literally “everyone wakes up early”
- The people are waking up themselves; no one is explicitly waking them.

So vakna is the correct verb; vekja would have to take an object (someone you’re waking up).

Is snemma an adjective or an adverb? Why not something like snemmt?

snemma is an adverb meaning “early”.

You use it to modify verbs:

vakna snemma = wake up early
fara snemma heim = go home early

There is also snemmt, which can also mean “early”, but:

snemma is very common in collocations like vakna snemma.
snemmt and snemma overlap a lot, but some speakers feel snemma is a bit more neutral/natural in many everyday contexts.

For you as a learner, snemma is perfectly idiomatic here and extremely common.

Why is it eru ennþá mjög þreyttir and not just eru mjög þreytt or eru mjög þreyttur?

Two important points: agreement and word choice.

Agreement of the adjective
Icelandic predicate adjectives agree with the subject in:
- gender
- number
- case (here: nominative)

The subject is allir (masculine plural nominative), so the adjective must also be masculine plural nominative:

þreyttur – masc. sg. nom.
þreytt – neut. sg. nom. / fem. sg. nom.
þreyttir – masc. pl. nom.

So we get allir … eru … þreyttir.

Where do ennþá and mjög go?
The structure is:

eru (verb)
ennþá (time/state adverb = still)
mjög (degree adverb = very)
þreyttir (predicate adjective = tired)

So eru ennþá mjög þreyttir = “are still very tired”.

You cannot just say eru mjög þreytt here, because that would:

use the wrong form of the adjective (no agreement with plural subject)
lose the “still” meaning from ennþá.

What is the difference between ennþá, enn, and þá? Could I say eru enn mjög þreyttir instead?

ennþá (usually written as one word) = still, yet
- Hann er ennþá þreyttur. = He is still tired.
enn on its own can also mean still / yet / even, but:
- ennþá is more common and natural in “still (in that state)” contexts.
- enn alone is very common in combinations like enn ekki (not yet).
þá on its own = then, at that time, sometimes still in certain older or fixed expressions.

In your sentence, both of these are possible and correct:

eru ennþá mjög þreyttir
eru enn mjög þreyttir

ennþá is a bit more colloquial and very common. enn alone sounds a little more formal or bookish here, but is not wrong. As a learner, ennþá is a safe, natural choice.

Why is it í strætó and not á strætó, even though English says “on the bus”?

Prepositions do not line up 1‑to‑1 between English and Icelandic. For means of transport, Icelandic typically uses í (“in”) where English uses “on”:

í strætó = on the bus
í bílnum = in the car
í lest = on the train
í flugvél = on the plane

So:

eru ennþá mjög þreyttir í strætó
= they are still very tired on the bus (i.e. while they are in the bus).

Á strætó would sound wrong in standard Icelandic for “on the bus” in this sense.

What exactly is strætó? Is it formal, and does it decline?

strætó is a very common colloquial word for “bus”, short for strætisvagn (literally “street vehicle”).

More formal / full form: strætisvagn
- í strætisvagninum = in/on the bus (more formal)
Everyday speech: í strætó

About declension:

In everyday usage, strætó is often treated as indeclinable in the singular:
- í strætó, úr strætó, með strætó.
You won’t usually hear forms like strætónum in casual speech; people just say í strætó.

So í strætó is very natural and very common in spoken and informal written Icelandic.

Why is the tense present (vakna, eru) when we’re talking about a repeated habit, not right now?

In Icelandic, the present tense is used for:

current actions: Ég borða núna. = I am eating now.
general truths: Vatn sýður við 100 gráður.
habits and routines: Ég vakna alltaf klukkan sjö.

So Á virkum dögum vakna allir snemma og eru ennþá mjög þreyttir í strætó naturally uses the present tense to describe a habitual situation (what regularly happens on weekdays).

This is actually similar to English present simple:

On weekdays, everyone wakes up early and is still very tired on the bus.

Could the adverbs be ordered differently, like eru mjög ennþá þreyttir or eru mjög þreyttir ennþá?

The most natural order here is:

eru ennþá mjög þreyttir

Rough guideline:

Sentence/state adverb (time / still / already, etc.): ennþá
Degree adverb (very / quite / rather, etc.): mjög
Adjective: þreyttir

Other orders are either ungrammatical or sound quite odd / marked:

eru mjög ennþá þreyttir – sounds wrong / very unnatural.
eru mjög þreyttir ennþá – possible in some contexts, but here it would be unusual and would put strange emphasis on ennþá, almost like an afterthought.

So as a learner, stick to [verb] + ennþá + mjög + adjective.

Are there other natural word orders for the whole sentence that keep the same meaning?

Yes, you can move some elements around as long as you keep V2 and don’t break the smaller chunks. For example:

Original:
- Á virkum dögum vakna allir snemma og eru ennþá mjög þreyttir í strætó.
Subject first:
- Allir vakna snemma á virkum dögum og eru ennþá mjög þreyttir í strætó.
Emphasise the bus context at the end of both clauses:
- Á virkum dögum vakna allir snemma og eru ennþá mjög þreyttir þegar þeir sitja í strætó.
  (Here we add þegar þeir sitja “when they sit” for clarity/emphasis.)

What you cannot do is:

Put the finite verb somewhere other than second position in a main clause:
- ✗ Á virkum dögum allir vakna snemma … (ungrammatical)

Within reason, you can shuffle time, place, and manner phrases around after the verb, but the core should stay:

[Fronted element] + [finite verb] + [subject] + [rest].