Við förum í listasafnið á morgun.

We go to the art museum tomorrow.

Breakdown of Við förum í listasafnið á morgun.

• við: we
• fara: to go
• í: to
• á morgun: tomorrow
• listasafnið: the art museum

Questions & Answers about Við förum í listasafnið á morgun.

What does við mean, and is it always translated as we?

Við is the nominative plural pronoun we.

• It’s used for 1st person plural subjects (the people doing the action).
• It works very much like English we and does not have different forms for “we inclusive/exclusive” the way some languages do.

Other cases of við exist (like okkur = us), but in this sentence við is the subject, so it’s in the nominative form.

Why is it förum and not fara? How is the verb fara conjugated?

Fara is the infinitive to go. In the present tense it’s irregular:

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

So with við you must use förum.
You’d only use fara after another verb (e.g. mig langar að fara – I want to go), not as the finite verb of the clause.

Why is a present tense form (förum) used to talk about the future (“tomorrow”)?

Icelandic very often uses the present tense to express future actions, especially when the time is clear from context:

• Við förum í listasafnið á morgun. – We’re going / We will go to the art museum tomorrow.
• Ég kem seinna. – I’m coming later / I’ll come later.

There are future-like constructions (e.g. ætla að + infinitive), but using the simple present with a future time word like á morgun is completely normal and very common.

What does the preposition í mean here, and which case does it take?

Í usually means in or into. It’s one of the prepositions that can take either accusative or dative, depending on meaning:

• Motion toward / into a place → accusative
• Location (being in a place) → dative

In this sentence, við förum í listasafnið describes going into the museum, i.e. motion toward a place, so listasafnið is in the accusative case.

Compare:

• Við erum í listasafninu. – We are in the art museum. (dative: listasafninu)
• Við förum í listasafnið. – We go to / into the art museum. (accusative: listasafnið)

What exactly is listasafnið made of? Why does it end in -ið?

Listasafnið is a compound noun + definite article:

1. list – art
2. safn – collection, museum
   → listasafn – art museum (literally art-collection)

Safn is a neuter noun, and its definite singular ending is -ið in the accusative and nominative:

• listasafn – an art museum
• listasafnið – the art museum

So listasafnið here is:
lista-safn-ið = art-museum-the → the art museum.

Why is the form listasafnið (accusative) and not something like listasafninu?

Because of the preposition í combined with motion.

The noun safn declines like this (singular):

• Nominative: safn – a museum
• Accusative: safn – a museum
• Dative: safni – to/at/in a museum
• Genitive: safns – of a museum

With the definite article (neuter):

• Nom./Acc.: safnið – the museum
• Dat.: safninu – to/at/in the museum

Since í + motion → accusative, and the definite accusative is listasafnið, that’s what you see.
If it were location (being there), you’d get:

• Við erum í listasafninu. – We are in the art museum. (dative)

Could you say á listasafnið instead of í listasafnið?

No, not in this meaning.

• Í is the normal preposition for going into / being inside buildings and enclosed places:
  
  • í skólann – to school
  • í bankann – to the bank
  • í sundlaugina – to the swimming pool
  • í listasafnið – to the art museum

Á is used with some other kinds of locations or events (e.g. á skrifstofuna – to the office, á tónleika – to a concert), but for listasafn the natural choice is í.
Á listasafnið would sound wrong in standard Icelandic in this context.

What does á morgun literally mean? Is it like “on the morning”?

Literally:

• á – on, at
• morgun – morning

But á morgun is an idiomatic fixed phrase meaning simply tomorrow.

Some related expressions:

• á morgnana – in the mornings (habitually)
• í morgun – this morning (earlier today)

So in this sentence, á morgun is best translated as tomorrow, not on the morning.

Can the word order change? For example, can I say Á morgun förum við í listasafnið?

Yes, Icelandic word order is relatively flexible, especially for adverbials like á morgun. All of these are acceptable:

• Við förum í listasafnið á morgun.
• Á morgun förum við í listasafnið. (puts more emphasis on tomorrow)
• Við förum á morgun í listasafnið. (less common, but possible in speech)

The basic idea is that the finite verb (förum) should stay in second position in a main clause; other elements like á morgun or við can be moved around before or after it for emphasis.

How is við förum í listasafnið á morgun pronounced, especially ð and ö?

Approximate pronunciation (using rough English-based hints):

• við – like vith with a very soft th (voiced, as in this). The ð is never pronounced like English d.
• förum – fö a bit like fur but with rounded lips; rum with a rolled or trilled r and a light m at the end.
• í – long ee, like see.
• listasafnið – LI-sta-savn-ith
  
  • li as in list (short i)
  • sta as in stuck
  • safn with a very short a, and the fn often sounds close to pn
  • ið / nið – again ð is soft, like the th in this
• á – like ow in cow, but a single, clear vowel, not a diphthong.
• morgun – roughly MOR-gun, with a rolled r and short u in the second syllable.

Rhythm-wise, stress is usually on the first syllable of each word: VIÐ för-um Í LIS-ta-safn-ið Á MOR-gun.

What is the difference between listasafn and safn alone? Does listasafn always mean “art museum”?

• safn – collection, museum (general word for a collection of things)

  • þjóðminjasafn – national museum
  • náttúrugripasafn – natural history museum

• listasafn – specifically an art museum, i.e. a museum of visual art.

So listasafn is not just any museum; it implies art as the content. If you say Við förum í safnið, context decides what kind of museum or collection it is. Við förum í listasafnið specifically points to the art museum.

How would I say “We are going to the art museum” using a more “progressive” form, like English we are going?

Icelandic sometimes uses vera að + infinitive to express an ongoing or about-to-happen action:

• Við erum að fara í listasafnið.

This can mean:

• We are going to the art museum (right now / in the process of going).
• We are about to go to the art museum.

However, for a future plan with a clear time like “tomorrow”, the simple present is perfectly natural and more common:

• Við förum í listasafnið á morgun.

So both are grammatical, but they don’t map 1:1 to English continuous vs simple forms.

How would I say “We went to the art museum yesterday” using the same structure?

You keep the structure, but put fara in the past tense and change the time word:

• Við fórum í listasafnið í gær.
  
  • fórum – past tense of förum (we went)
  • í gær – yesterday

So:

• Við förum í listasafnið á morgun. – We are going / will go to the art museum tomorrow.
• Við fórum í listasafnið í gær. – We went to the art museum yesterday.