Questions & Answers about Við lesum um listasafn á netinu.
What does lesum tell me about the subject and the tense in this sentence?
Lesum is the present tense, 1st person plural form of the verb lesa (to read).
- Ég les – I read
- Þú lest – You (sg.) read
- Hann/Hún/Það les – He/She/It reads
- Við lesum – We read
- Þið lesið – You (pl.) read
- Þeir/Þær/Þau lesa – They read
So lesum shows:
- Subject: we
- Tense: present (“read / are reading”)
In English we say “We are reading…”. Why is there no “are” in Icelandic?
Icelandic does not usually use a separate continuous tense like English am/is/are reading.
- English: We read / We are reading
- Icelandic: both are simply Við lesum
Context decides whether you mean a general habit (“we read”) or something happening now (“we are reading”). You only use vera (to be) + present participle in special cases, not as a normal continuous tense.
What does the preposition um mean here, and what case does it take?