Breakdown of Lífið gefur okkur minningar, bæði gleði og sorg sem við lærum af.
við
we
okkur
us
læra
to learn
sem
that
Questions & Answers about Lífið gefur okkur minningar, bæði gleði og sorg sem við lærum af.
Why does the sentence start with Lífið and not Líf? What does the ending -ið do?
Líf is the basic noun “life” (neuter, singular).
Lífið is “the life” — the definite form.
In Icelandic, the definite article (“the”) is usually added as an ending on the noun:
- líf = life
- líf-ið = the life
So -ið is the neuter singular definite ending.
Even though English says “life gives us memories” (no “the”), Icelandic often uses the definite form for general concepts like life, nature, the mind, etc. So Lífið here really means “life (in general)”, even though it literally looks like “the life”.
Why is Lífið the subject of gefur? Shouldn’t life be “it” or something?
In Icelandic, nouns are used very freely as subjects, even for abstract ideas:
- Lífið gefur okkur minningar…
Life gives us memories…
The grammar:
- Lífið – subject (nominative singular, definite)
- gefur – verb “gives”, 3rd person singular present
You could in theory say Það gefur okkur minningar (It gives us memories), but that would be vague. Using Lífið as the subject is completely natural and stylistically better.
What exactly is gefur? How is it conjugated?