Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Þau eru að leita að nýju húsnæði því fjölskyldan er að verða stærri. - They are looking for new housing because the family is becoming larger.

þeir – they for a group that is all masculine
þær – they for a group that is all feminine
þau – they for:
- a mixed‑gender group, or
- a group of things that are grammatically neuter

In this sentence, Þau is “they” for a mixed or unspecified group (for example, parents, a couple, or a family unit). It is nominative plural and functions as the subject of eru að leita.

You would not use þeir or þær unless the group was clearly all-male or all‑female and you wanted to highlight that.

Why does Icelandic use eru að leita instead of just leita for “are looking”?

The pattern vera + að + infinitive (here eru að leita) often corresponds to the English progressive:

Þau leita að nýju húsnæði.
– They look / They search for new housing (habitual, general fact).
Þau eru að leita að nýju húsnæði.
– They are (currently) looking for new housing (ongoing action right now or over some period).

So eru að leita emphasizes that the searching is in progress, just like English “are looking.”

Why are there two að in a row in eru að leita að nýju húsnæði?

The two að have different functions:

eru að leita
- The first að is part of the vera + að + infinitive construction. It turns leita into something like “to be looking” (progressive aspect).
leita að nýju húsnæði
- The second að is a preposition meaning “for” in this context.
  leita að e-u = to look for something.

So structurally it is:

eru + að + leita + að + nýju húsnæði
are + to (progressive) + look + for + new housing

You cannot drop either one; they belong to different patterns.

Why is it nýju húsnæði and not nýtt húsnæði?

Because of case and adjective agreement.

The verb-preposition combination leita að requires the dative case for its object.
húsnæði is a neuter noun, and here it is dative singular.
The adjective nýr (new) must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Dative singular forms:

Noun: húsnæði (same form in several cases)
Adjective (weak declension, because the noun is indefinite but in this construction we still use weak here): nýju

So we get:

að leita að nýju húsnæði
to look for new housing (dative: nýju
- húsnæði)

Why does leita að take the dative case? Could it ever be accusative?

This is an example of lexical case government: some Icelandic verbs (or verb + preposition combinations) simply require a certain case.

að leita að e-u → to look for something
The e-u stands for einhverju, the dative of eitthvað (something).

So you must use dative with leita að, no matter what the object is. It is not optional and does not change to accusative in another meaning for this structure.

Other verbs take other cases:

sakna e-s – to miss something (genitive)
hitta e-n – to meet someone (accusative)

But leita að is always dative.

What kind of noun is húsnæði? Is it countable, and does it just mean “house”?

húsnæði is:

neuter
singular‑only (you don’t normally see a plural form)
typically used as a mass or collective noun

Meaning-wise, it is broader than just “house”:

hús – a (physical) house, building
húsnæði – housing, accommodation, premises, living space

In this sentence, nýju húsnæði is best understood as “new housing / new accommodation”, not literally “a new single house.”

What does því mean here, and how is it different from af því að?

In this sentence, því is a conjunction meaning “because”:

… því fjölskyldan er að verða stærri.
… because the family is getting bigger.

You will also see af því að, which also means “because”:

Þau eru að leita að nýju húsnæði af því að fjölskyldan er að verða stærri.

Differences:

því alone is shorter and very common in spoken and written language.
af því að is a bit more explicit and can feel slightly more formal or careful, but in everyday language they often feel interchangeable in sentences like this.

Be careful not to confuse this því with the dative pronoun því = “to it / for it”; context and position (linking two clauses) tell you it is being used as “because.”

Why is fjölskyldan singular when in English we think of “the family” as many people?

In Icelandic, fjölskylda (family) is a singular feminine noun:

fjölskylda – a family
fjölskyldan – the family (definite form with the article suffix -n)

Grammatically, the subject here is singular:

fjölskyldan er að verða stærri
the family is getting bigger

This actually matches standard American English grammar (“the family is”). If you wanted to emphasize the individual members, you could phrase it differently in Icelandic (e.g. meðlimir fjölskyldunnar – the members of the family), but fjölskyldan itself stays singular, and the verb er agrees with that.

How does er að verða stærri work, and why use verða instead of just vera?

The phrase er að verða stærri literally is:

er – is
að verða – becoming
stærri – bigger

Two key points:

vera + að + verða + adjective
This expresses a change in progress:
- er að verða ≈ is getting / is becoming
verða means “to become”. Using vera alone would only describe a state:
- fjölskyldan er stór – the family is big (state)
- fjölskyldan er að verða stærri – the family is getting bigger (ongoing change)

So er að verða stærri emphasizes that the size of the family is increasing over time, not just that it is big.

How is the comparative stærri formed, and why doesn’t it change ending here?

stærri is the comparative of the adjective stór (big).

Positive: stór – big
Comparative: stærri – bigger
Superlative: stærstur – biggest

In this sentence, stærri is a predicative adjective after vera (er að verða stærri). In this role, comparative forms are usually:

uninflected for case, number, and gender (they often just appear as stærri for all), especially in simple predicative use.

So you don’t see a special case ending here; it just appears as plain stærri after vera / verða.

Can I say Þau leita að nýju húsnæði without eru að? What changes?

Yes, you can:

Þau leita að nýju húsnæði.
– They look / they search for new housing (habitual, general activity).
Þau eru að leita að nýju húsnæði.
– They are (currently) looking for new housing (ongoing, in progress).

Both are grammatically correct. The version with eru að puts more focus on the current, ongoing nature of the action, similar to the difference between English “they look” and “they are looking.”

Could I drop the second að and say Þau eru að leita nýju húsnæði?

No. That would be incorrect.

The correct structure is:

leita að e-u – to look for something (must have að)

So you must keep the preposition:

Þau eru að leita að nýju húsnæði.

Without the second að, the verb leita would be missing its required preposition and the sentence would sound ungrammatical to native speakers.

Why is the word order Þau eru að leita að nýju húsnæði því fjölskyldan er að verða stærri and not something like Þau að leita eru …?

Icelandic main clauses generally follow a verb‑second (V2) pattern:

Some element in first position (here the subject Þau),
then the finite verb (eru),
then the rest.

So:

Þau (1st position)
eru (finite verb, 2nd position)
að leita að nýju húsnæði (rest of the predicate)
því (because)
fjölskyldan er að verða stærri (subordinate clause).

Putting eru later (like Þau að leita eru …) would break the normal word order and sound very wrong in neutral prose. The second clause (fjölskyldan er að verða stærri) also follows the same idea: fjölskyldan then er.