Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Um helgar förum við stundum á safn í borginni. - On weekends we sometimes go to a museum in the city.

So um helgar is literally during weekends / around weekends, and it is understood as on weekends (as a habit, not just one specific weekend).

Compare:

um helgina – during the (coming/last/this) weekend, one specific weekend (accusative singular)
um helgar – on weekends in general, a repeated action

You would not normally say á helgi here.

Why does the verb come before við? Why is it Um helgar förum við… and not Um helgar við förum…?

Icelandic main clauses follow a verb‑second (V2) word order, similar to German.

The finite verb (here förum) must be the second element in the sentence.
Exactly one element can come before the verb: subject, adverb, time phrase, etc.

In your sentence:

Um helgar – first element (time phrase, moved to the front for emphasis)
förum – second element, so the verb must go here
við – subject, follows the verb
the rest of the sentence…

So:

Um helgar förum við stundum á safn í borginni. ✅ (correct V2)
Um helgar við förum stundum á safn í borginni. ❌ (verb is third)

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

Við förum stundum á safn í borginni um helgar.

What verb is förum, and what tense and person is it?

Förum is a present‑tense form of the verb fara (to go).

Present tense of fara:

ég fer – I go
þú ferð – you go (singular)
hann / hún / það fer – he / she / it goes
við förum – we go
þið farið – you go (plural)
þeir / þær / þau fara – they go

So förum is 1st person plural, present tense: we go / we are going.

The infinitive you will find in dictionaries is fara.

Why is stundum placed after við as förum við stundum? Could I say förum stundum við instead?

In normal statements, common adverbs like stundum (sometimes), oft (often), aldrei (never) usually come:

after the finite verb
after the subject
but before most objects and prepositional phrases

So a very typical pattern is:

subject – verb – adverb – objects / prepositional phrases

That gives:

(Um helgar) förum við stundum á safn í borginni.

Putting stundum between the verb and the subject (förum stundum við …) is not normal modern word order and will sound wrong in this kind of sentence.

You can move stundum for emphasis, but you still have to respect V2. For example:

Stundum förum við á safn í borginni. – Here stundum is first for emphasis; verb förum still stays in second place.

Why is it á safn and not á safnið? Does á safn mean to a museum or to the museum?

A few things are happening in á safn:

Preposition choice: á
With many places you visit as an activity (museums, restaurants, cafés, concerts, etc.), Icelandic normally uses á:
- fara á safn – go to a museum
- fara á veitingastað – go to a restaurant
- fara á tónleika – go to a concert
Case: accusative
á can take accusative (motion towards) or dative (location):
- á safn (acc.) – to a museum (movement)
- á safni (dat.) – at a museum (location)
Here we are going to the museum, so accusative is used.
Indefiniteness
Icelandic has no separate word for an indefinite article (a / an).
The bare noun safn can often correspond to English a museum.
- á safn – to a museum / to museums (activity in general)
- á safnið – to the (specific, known) museum

So in context, á safn usually feels like to a museum / to the museum (as an activity, not focusing on which one).

What case is safn in here, and why does it look the same as the dictionary form?

Safn is in the accusative singular here.

The noun safn (neuter, museum / collection) has these singular forms:

nominative: safn
accusative: safn
dative: safni
genitive: safns

Since á with motion towards takes the accusative, we need accusative singular:

á safn

Because the nominative and accusative singular are identical (safn), the form you see in the sentence looks the same as the dictionary form.

What does í borginni literally mean, and what is the ending -inni?

Í borginni means in the city.

Breakdown:

í – in
borg – city, town (feminine noun)
-in- – the definite article (the), attached as a suffix
-ni – part of the dative singular ending in the definite form

So:

indefinite: borg – a city
definite nominative: borgin – the city
definite accusative: borgina
definite dative: borginni
definite genitive: borgarinnar

The preposition í takes:

dative for location: í borginni – in the city
accusative for motion into: í borgina – into / to the city

In your sentence we are located in the city, not going to it, so we choose the dative form borginni.

Why is it á safn but í borginni? Both use prepositions; how do I know which case to use?

Two key ideas:

Different prepositions
- á often covers on / to / at.
- í often covers in / into.
For typical activities:
- fara á safn – go to a museum
- búa í borginni – live in the city
Motion vs. location with á and í
Both á and í switch case depending on whether you talk about movement or static location:
- Movement (to/into): accusative
- Location (on/in/at): dative
In your sentence:
- á safn – movement to a museum → á
  - accusative (safn)
- í borginni – location in the city → í
  - dative (borginni)

Compare:

Við förum í borgina. – We go to the city. (motion → accusative borgina)
Við erum í borginni. – We are in the city. (location → dative borginni)

Could I say Um helgar stundum förum við á safn í borginni, or is that wrong?

That word order is not acceptable in normal statements, because it breaks the verb‑second rule.

Um helgar – first element
stundum – second element
förum – third element → this violates V2

The finite verb (förum) must be the second element. Correct options include:

Um helgar förum við stundum á safn í borginni.
Stundum förum við um helgar á safn í borginni.
Við förum stundum um helgar á safn í borginni.

In all these versions the verb (förum) is the second element in the clause.

How would I change the sentence to talk about one specific weekend, or about going every weekend, instead of just sometimes?

You can adjust two parts of the sentence:

The weekend expression
- Um helgar – on weekends in general (habitual, plural)
- Um helgina – during the / this weekend (one particular weekend)
- Á helginni – on the weekend (this specific weekend, more static)
The adverb of frequency
- stundum – sometimes
- oft – often
- alltaf – always

Examples:

Um helgina förum við á safn í borginni.
This weekend we are going to a museum in the city. (one specific weekend, no adverb)
Um helgar förum við oft á safn í borginni.
On weekends we often go to a museum in the city.
Um helgar förum við alltaf á safn í borginni.
On weekends we always go to a museum in the city. (every weekend)

How do you pronounce förum and við?

Very roughly (not strict IPA):

förum – a bit like FUR‑um, but with the vowel from German ö (as in schön) or French eu (as in peur):
- fö – a rounded vowel, between English e in bed and u in burn, but with rounded lips
- stress is on the first syllable: FÖ‑rum
við – a bit like English vith, but the final sound is:
- ð – like the th in English this or that, never like t or d
- short i, like in English bit

So together:

förum við ≈ FÖ‑rum vith, with both words stressed on the first syllable and pronounced fairly quickly as a unit.