Questions & Answers about Við fórum einu sinni í bíó.
What does Við mean here, and is it always written with a capital letter?
Við is the subject pronoun we in Icelandic. It is:
- 1st person plural
- Nominative case (used for subjects)
It is only capitalized because it is the first word of the sentence. In the middle of a sentence it would be við (lowercase), just like English we vs We.
Related forms (for reference):
- Nominative: við – we (subject)
- Accusative: okkur – us (object)
- Dative: okkur
- Genitive: okkar – our / of us
You normally cannot drop við in Icelandic (see a later question); Icelandic is not a “pro‑drop” language like Spanish or Italian.
What exactly is fórum, and what is the basic verb it comes from?
Fórum is the past tense, 1st person plural form of the verb að fara (to go).
Very simplified paradigm:
- Infinitive: að fara – to go
- Present:
- ég fer – I go
- við förum – we go
- Past (simple):
- ég fór – I went
- við fórum – we went
So Við fórum … literally = We went …
It’s a strong verb, so the stem vowel changes: a → ó (fara → fór‑).
What is the difference between förum and fórum?