Hann lærir heima í stað þess að sækja tíma í skólanum í dag.

He studies at home instead of attending classes at school today.

Breakdown of Hann lærir heima í stað þess að sækja tíma í skólanum í dag.

• hann: he
• skólinn: the school
• heima: at home
• í: at
• í dag: today
• læra: to study
• í stað þess að: instead of
• sækja: to attend
• tíminn: the class

Questions & Answers about Hann lærir heima í stað þess að sækja tíma í skólanum í dag.

Why is it lærir and not something like er að læra to mean is learning?

Icelandic usually uses the simple present for both:

• habitual actions
• actions happening right now / today

So Hann lærir heima í dag can naturally mean He is studying at home today.

There is a progressive construction: Hann er að læra (literally he is at learn), but:

• Hann lærir heima í dag – neutral, perfectly normal, can describe what he is doing today.
• Hann er að læra heima í dag – focuses a bit more on the ongoing activity, often “right now”.

In this sentence, Hann lærir heima í stað þess að sækja tíma..., the simple lærir is idiomatic and doesn’t feel “wrong” or incomplete to an Icelander the way He learns at home today would in English.

What exactly does heima mean, and how is it different from heim or heima hjá sér?

• heima is an adverb meaning at home (location).

  • Hann er heima. – He is at home.
  • Hann lærir heima. – He studies / is studying at home.

• heim is an adverb meaning home(wards), indicating motion towards home.

  • Hann fer heim. – He goes (to) home.

• heima hjá sér means at his (own) home / place, making it explicit that it’s his own home, not just some home.

  • Hann er heima hjá sér. – He is at his place / in his own home.

In your sentence, heima is enough; it normally implies at his home in context, so Hann lærir heima... is fully natural.

How does the expression í stað þess að work, word by word?

í stað þess að corresponds to instead of doing X. Breaking it down:

• í – in
• stað – place (from the noun staður, place)
• þess – of that (genitive of the pronoun það, it/that)
• að – here it introduces an infinitive verb (að sækja)

Literally it’s something like in (the) place of that to [do something], i.e. instead of [doing something].

So:

• í stað þess að sækja tíma – instead of attending classes
• After í stað þess að, the next verb is in the infinitive with að:
  • í stað þess að borða – instead of eating
  • í stað þess að sofa – instead of sleeping

Why do we need þess in í stað þess að? Could we just say í stað að?

You can’t say í stað að; it would be ungrammatical.

í stað behaves like a preposition + noun phrase that takes a genitive complement:

• í stað hans – instead of him
• í stað þess – instead of that

When what follows is an action (a verb phrase), Icelandic uses þess (genitive that) as a kind of “placeholder” before að + infinitive:

• í stað þess að sækja tíma – instead of attending classes
• í stað þess að fara heim – instead of going home

So þess is required for the standard construction í stað þess að + infinitive.

Could we replace í stað þess að with í staðinn fyrir að or just í staðinn?

Yes, there are close alternatives, but they’re not always interchangeable word‑for‑word.

Common patterns:

• í stað þess að [verb] – very standard, slightly more formal/neutral.
• í staðinn fyrir að [verb] – also common, a bit more colloquial in feel.

Examples:

• Hann lærir heima í stað þess að sækja tíma í skólanum.
• Hann lærir heima í staðinn fyrir að sækja tíma í skólanum.

Both are fine.

í staðinn on its own usually corresponds to instead (adverb):

• Hann lærir heima í dag í staðinn. – He studies at home instead today.

So:

• Use í stað þess að or í staðinn fyrir að directly before an infinitive.
• Use bare í staðinn when it stands alone as “instead”.

What does sækja tíma literally mean, and why do we use sækja for attending classes?

The verb sækja has several meanings: to fetch, to go and get, to attend (regularly), to apply for, to attack, depending on context.

In an educational context, sækja tíma is a standard way to say attend classes / attend lessons:

• sækja tíma í íslensku – attend Icelandic classes
• sækja tíma í ræktinni – attend sessions at the gym

Literally it’s something like go to / participate in classes.

Alternatives you might also hear:

• mæta í tíma – show up to class
• fara í tíma – go to class

But sækja tíma is a very idiomatic, “official-sounding” way to talk about attending scheduled instruction.

Is tíma here singular or plural, and why this form?

The noun is tími (class, lesson, time). Its accusative forms are:

• Singular accusative: tíma
• Plural accusative: tíma

So tíma can be one class or several classes, depending on context.

In the phrase sækja tíma í skólanum, it’s usually understood as attend (his) classes, i.e. plural, because you normally have more than one lesson and the combination sækja tíma is a fixed expression.

To make the plurality explicit you can add something:

• sækja tímana – attend the classes (definite plural)
• sækja marga tíma – attend many classes

But in everyday usage, bare sækja tíma is enough and naturally reads as “attend classes”.

Why is it í skólanum and not something like í skólann or plain í skóla?

Two separate issues are involved: case (accusative vs dative) and definiteness.

1. Case with í
   The preposition í takes:

   • accusative for motion into:
     
     • Hann fer í skólann. – He goes into the school / to school.
   • dative for location in/at:
     
     • Hann er í skólanum. – He is at school / in the school.

   In your sentence we talk about classes at the school as a location, not movement into it, so dative is used: í skólanum.

2. Definite form
   skóli (school) with the definite article in dative singular is skólanum:

   • Nom: skólinn – the school
   • Acc: skólann – (to) the school
   • Dat: skólanum – at/in the school
   • Gen: skólans – of the school

   So í skólanum literally = in/at the school.

Together: sækja tíma í skólanum = attend classes at the school.

Could we say í skóla instead of í skólanum? What difference would it make?

Yes, í skóla is also possible, and the difference is mainly about definiteness and specificity.

• í skólanum – at the school, a specific school that is known in the context (his school).
• í skóla – at a school / at school, more generic or indefinite.

So:

• Hann lærir heima í stað þess að sækja tíma í skólanum í dag.
  – He is studying at home instead of attending (his) classes at the school today.

• Hann lærir heima í stað þess að sækja tíma í skóla í dag.
  – He is studying at home instead of attending classes at (a) school today.
  (Grammatically fine, but feels slightly more vague/abstract.)

In normal context where his school is clear, Icelanders often prefer í skólanum.

Why is í dag placed at the end? Can it go somewhere else?

Time adverbs like í dag are fairly flexible in Icelandic word order. All of these are grammatical, with only slight differences in emphasis:

• Hann lærir heima í stað þess að sækja tíma í skólanum í dag.
  (Neutral; í dag often understood as “today, this is the arrangement.”)

• Hann lærir heima í dag í stað þess að sækja tíma í skólanum.
  (Emphasises today he’s studying at home, rather than the normal situation.)

You can also front í dag, but then the verb must stay in second position (verb-second rule):

• Í dag lærir hann heima í stað þess að sækja tíma í skólanum.

What you cannot say is:

• ✗ Hann í dag lærir heima... (verb is no longer in second position – ungrammatical main‑clause order.)

So: í dag can move, but the finite verb (lærir) must remain the second element in a main clause.

Does í dag modify the whole situation, or just sækja tíma í skólanum?

Positionally, í dag is closest to sækja tíma í skólanum, so a very literal reading is:

• ...instead of attending classes at school today.

However, in natural understanding, í dag usually scopes over the whole contrast:

• Today, he studies at home, instead of attending his classes at school.

If the speaker wanted to stress that only the school‑part is restricted to today (and not necessarily the studying at home), they could choose a different word order:

• Hann lærir heima, en í dag sækir hann ekki tíma í skólanum.
  – He studies at home, but today he is not attending classes at school.

So in the original sentence, Icelanders typically interpret í dag as applying to the entire described arrangement, not only to sækja tíma í skólanum.

Why don’t we say something like heima hjá sér or tíma sína to mark “his” home or “his” classes?

Icelandic often leaves possessive ideas (my/your/his/her) unexpressed when they are obvious:

• Hann er heima. – He is at home (understood: his home).
• Hann fór í herbergið. – He went to the room (normally understood as his own room if context says so).

In education contexts:

• sækja tíma í skólanum is naturally understood as attend his (own) classes at his school, unless context says otherwise.

You can make it explicit, but it’s usually not necessary:

• Hann lærir heima hjá sér... – He studies at his (own) home...
• ...í stað þess að sækja tímana sína í skólanum. – ...instead of attending his (own) classes at school.

These versions sound more marked or contrastive; the original sentence is more neutral and idiomatic.