Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Við búum á rólegu svæði nálægt skólanum.

Við – we (subject pronoun, 1st person plural)
búum – live / reside (verb, present tense, we live)
á – on / in / at (preposition; here it means in / in a area)
rólegu – quiet, calm (adjective, in a specific form to match svæði)
svæði – area, region, zone (noun)
nálægt – near, close to (preposition here)
skólanum – the school (noun skóli in the dative with a definite ending)

So the overall meaning is We live in a quiet area near the school.

Why is it búum and not something like býum or just búa?

Búum is the present tense form of the verb búa (to live, to reside) for við (we).

Present tense forms of búa are:

ég bý – I live
þú býrð – you (sg.) live
hann / hún / það býr – he / she / it lives
við búum – we live
þið búið – you (pl.) live
þeir / þær / þau búa – they live

So with við you must use búum.
Búa by itself is the infinitive (to live, not we live).

What case is við in, and why?

Við is in the nominative case.

In Icelandic, the subject of a normal active sentence is typically in the nominative. Here, við is the subject of búum, so it has to be nominative.

Pronoun cases for við are:

nominative: við – we
accusative: okkur – us
dative: okkur – (to/for) us
genitive: okkar – of us / our (as a pronoun)

Only the nominative form við can be the subject.

Why is it á rólegu svæði? What case does á take here?

The preposition á can take either dative or accusative, depending on meaning:

á + dative – location, no movement: on / in / at
á + accusative – movement onto / to a place

In Við búum á rólegu svæði, you are talking about where you live (a location, no movement), so á governs the dative:

á
- rólegu svæði (dative) = in a quiet area

If you were talking about moving to some area, you would use á + accusative instead.

Why does rólegu end in -u here?

Rólegu is the adjective rólegur / rólegt / róleg (quiet, calm) agreeing with the noun svæði:

svæði is neuter
after á (with static location), the noun phrase is dative
so the adjective must be neuter dative singular

The neuter dative singular form of rólegur is rólegu.

So:

rólegt svæði – a quiet area (neuter, nominative/accusative)
á rólegu svæði – in a quiet area (neuter, dative, so rólegu)

The -u ending signals dative neuter singular for this adjective.

What kind of noun is svæði, and how do I know it’s in the dative?

Svæði is a neuter noun meaning area, region. It belongs to a group where several singular cases look the same:

nominative singular: svæði
accusative singular: svæði
dative singular: svæði
genitive singular: svæðis

So the form doesn’t change between nominative/accusative/dative singular.

You know it’s dative here because of the preposition á used for location:

á (location) → requires dative
therefore svæði is in the dative, even though the form happens to look identical to other cases.

The adjective rólegu, which clearly shows dative, also confirms that the case of the whole phrase is dative.

How does nálægt work in this sentence? Is it an adjective or a preposition?

In this sentence, nálægt works as a preposition meaning near / close to and it governs the dative case:

nálægt
- dative → near something

So:

nálægt skólanum – near the school

Nálægt can also appear as an adjective (close, near), but here it clearly functions as a preposition because it directly takes an object (skólanum) in the dative.

Why is it skólanum and not skóli or skóla?

Base form:

skóli – school (masculine noun)

Case endings (indefinite):

nominative: skóli – a school
accusative: skóla – a school (object)
dative: skóla – to/at a school
genitive: skóla – of a school

To say the school, Icelandic adds a suffixed definite article.
For dative singular masculine with this type of noun, the definite form is:

skóla
- num → skólanum = the school (dative)

In the sentence:

nálægt requires dative
we mean the school, not just a school

So we must say nálægt skólanum, not nálægt skóla.

Could I say Við búum nálægt skólanum á rólegu svæði instead? Is the word order fixed?

The basic word order in Icelandic main clauses is verb in second position, but within the rest of the sentence there is some flexibility for emphasis.

Both of these are grammatically possible:

Við búum á rólegu svæði nálægt skólanum.
Við búum nálægt skólanum á rólegu svæði.

The first order (location phrase first, then the near the school phrase) sounds more natural and neutral in this context, because á rólegu svæði feels like the main location and nálægt skólanum is extra information.

Switching them puts more focus on nálægt skólanum (living near the school), but it can sound a bit heavier or less idiomatic in everyday speech.

Could I use í instead of á, like Við búum í rólegu svæði?

With svæði, you normally use á, not í:

á svæði – in/on an area (the usual collocation)

Í generally means in / inside, and is common with words like:

í húsi – in a house
í borg – in a city
í hverfi – in a neighborhood

So you could say:

Við búum í rólegu hverfi nálægt skólanum. – We live in a quiet neighborhood near the school.

But with svæði, Icelandic prefers á rólegu svæði, not í rólegu svæði. The preposition choice is often tied to the specific noun, and not always parallel to English.

Is there a continuous form like We are living…? Could I say Við erum að búa á rólegu svæði?

Icelandic can form a kind of progressive with vera að (to be doing), but it is used more narrowly than English be + -ing.

For búa (to live/reside), the simple present is normally used for both:

Við búum á rólegu svæði. – We live / We are living in a quiet area.

Við erum að búa á rólegu svæði is unusual and would more likely be interpreted as something like:

We are in the process of settling / taking up residence in a quiet area (temporary or in-progress action).

For your normal, ongoing residence, stick with Við búum ….

Can I omit við and just say Búum á rólegu svæði nálægt skólanum?

In standard Icelandic, you normally keep the subject pronoun:

Við búum á rólegu svæði nálægt skólanum.

Dropping við (just Búum á rólegu svæði…) is not standard in writing and would sound either fragment-like or very informal / note-like.

Unlike some languages (like Spanish), Icelandic does not routinely drop subject pronouns. They can occasionally be omitted in very informal speech when context is totally clear, but you should not rely on that; as a learner, keep við.

Does búa mean to live as in to be alive, or only to live somewhere?

Búa means to live, reside, dwell (in a place), not to be alive.

For to be alive / to live (exist), Icelandic uses:

að lifa – to live (be alive)
að vera á lífi – to be alive

So:

Við búum á rólegu svæði. – We live / reside in a quiet area.
Hún lifir enn. – She is still alive.
Hann er á lífi. – He is alive.

How do you pronounce this sentence naturally?

Approximate IPA (standard pronunciation):

Við – /vɪːð/
búum – /ˈpuːʏm/
á – /auː/
rólegu – /ˈrouːlɛɣʏ/ (the g is a soft [ɣ], not like hard English g)
svæði – /ˈsvaːiðɪ/
nálægt – /ˈnauːlaixt/ (the g+t gives a voiceless [ixt] type sound)
skólanum – /ˈskouːlaˌnʏm/

Stress is always on the first syllable of each word: Við, búum, rólegu, svæði, nálægt, skólanum.

Spoken quickly, some sounds will weaken a bit, but keeping first-syllable stress and long vowels (like in Við, búum, á, svæði) will make you sound much more natural.