Stundum fara kærastar og kærustur saman í bíó á kvöldin.

Sometimes boyfriends and girlfriends go to the cinema together in the evenings.

Breakdown of Stundum fara kærastar og kærustur saman í bíó á kvöldin.

• fara: to go
• saman: together
• í: to
• kvöldið: the evening

Questions & Answers about Stundum fara kærastar og kærustur saman í bíó á kvöldin.

What does Stundum mean exactly, and why does it come first in the sentence?

Stundum means “sometimes”. It’s an adverb of frequency.

In Icelandic main clauses, the finite verb usually comes in second position (Icelandic is a so‑called V2 language). That means:

• If you start the sentence with the subject, you get:
  Kærastar og kærustur fara stundum í bíó.
  “Boyfriends and girlfriends sometimes go to the movies.”

• If you move the adverb Stundum to the front, the verb has to come right after it:
  Stundum fara kærastar og kærustur saman í bíó á kvöldin.

So Stundum is first, and fara must immediately follow it.

Why is the verb fara and not some other form like fer?

Fara is the 3rd person plural present tense form of the verb að fara (“to go”).

Present tense of að fara (to go):

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

The subject here is kærastar og kærustur (“boyfriends and girlfriends”), which is plural, so the verb must also be plural: fara, not fer.

The basic structure is:
Stundum (adverb) fara (3rd pl. verb) kærastar og kærustur (plural subject) …

What are kærastar and kærustur, and what are their singular forms?