Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Við viljum vera lengur í náttúrunni með börnunum okkar. - We want to stay longer in nature with our children.

Natural English: We want to stay longer in nature with our children.
You could also say: We want to spend more time outdoors with our children.

Why is it við viljum and not við vilja or við vil?

Að vilja (to want) is irregular. Present tense:

ég vil – I want
þú vilt – you (sg.) want
hann/hún/það vill – he/she/it wants
við viljum – we want
þið viljið – you (pl.) want
þeir/þær/þau vilja – they want

So with við (we), you must use viljum.
Vilja is the infinitive or the they form, and vil is only for ég (I).

Why is vera (to be) in the infinitive here?

Many modal‑type verbs in Icelandic are followed by an infinitive, just like want to do in English:

vilja – want to
geta – can / be able to
ætla – intend to / be going to
þurfa – need to

So after við viljum (we want), the verb that describes the action (vera) must be in the infinitive:

við viljum fara – we want to go
við viljum borða – we want to eat
við viljum vera – we want to be / stay

What exactly does vera mean here: “be” or “stay”?

Vera literally means to be, but in contexts of time spent in a place, it often corresponds to stay in English.

Við viljum vera hér lengur. – We want to stay here longer.
Hann vill ekki vera í bænum. – He doesn’t want to stay (be) in town.

So the Icelandic verb is still “to be”, but English usually uses stay in this situation.

What is lengur, and how is it different from lengi?

Both are time adverbs related to “long”:

lengi – for a long time
lengur – longer (comparative form of lengi)

Examples:

Við verðum hér lengi. – We will be here for a long time.
Við viljum vera hér lengur. – We want to be here longer (than now / than planned).

So lengur always implies comparison: more time than before, than planned, than someone else, etc.

Why is it í náttúrunni and not í náttúruna?

The preposition í (in/into) can take either dative or accusative, with a meaning difference:

dative – location (where something is, static)
accusative – direction (into, to, movement)

In the sentence:

í náttúrunni – in nature (already there, location)
- náttúru → dative singular definite: náttúru + inni → náttúrunni

If you said:

í náttúruna – into nature / to nature (movement towards it, accusative)

Examples:

Við erum í náttúrunni. – We are in nature.
Við förum út í náttúruna. – We go out into nature.

Why does náttúrunni have the ending -nni? What does that mean?

The ending -nni shows two things:

Definiteness (like the in English)
Case + gender (dative feminine singular here)

Base noun: náttúra (nature, feminine)

Nominative indefinite: náttúra – nature
Nominative definite: náttúran – the nature
Dative definite: í náttúrunni – in the nature

So náttúrunni would be wrong; it must be náttúrunni for “in (the) nature” in this context.

Why is it með börnunum okkar and not með börnin okkar or með börnum okkar?

The preposition með (with) usually takes the dative case when it means “together with someone/something”.

Noun: barn (child), plural börn

Nominative plural definite: börnin – the children
Dative plural definite: börnunum – (with/to/from) the children

Since með here means with (together with), you need the dative plural definite:

með börnunum okkar – with our children

Compare:

Ég sé börnin okkar. – I see our children. (accusative plural definite)
Ég fer með börnunum okkar. – I go with our children. (dative plural definite)

Why does the possessive okkar come after the noun (börnunum okkar) and not before it?

In Icelandic, there are two main types of possessives:

Independent pronouns (like okkar, “our”)
- Usually come after the noun
- Do not take definite article on the noun if the meaning is clearly definite, but often you still see the definite form with family members / close relations for emphasis.
Attributive possessive adjectives (like vor, an older/literary form of “our”)
- Usually come before the noun
- The noun is normally indefinite

In everyday modern Icelandic, with okkar, normal word order is:

börnunum okkar – our children (literally “children-the our”)

You would not normally say okkar börnunum. Positioning okkar after the noun is the standard pattern here.

What form is börnunum exactly, and how does it come from barn?

Base noun: barn – child (neuter)

Key plural forms:

Nominative plural: börn – children
Accusative plural: börn – children
Dative plural: börnum – to/for/with children
Genitive plural: barna

Definite forms:

Nominative plural definite: börnin – the children
Dative plural definite: börnunum – to/for/with the children

So börnunum =
börn (children) + -unum (definite dative plural ending for many neuter nouns).

Why is the subject pronoun við used? Could you drop it, like in some other languages?

In Icelandic, subject pronouns are normally expressed, unlike in Spanish or Italian, for example.

Við viljum vera… – We want to be… (normal)
Just Viljum vera… would sound incomplete or imperative (like an instruction to a group, “Let’s want to be…”), not a regular statement.

So you almost always keep við when it’s the subject we.

Is the word order fixed, or could you say Við viljum lengur vera í náttúrunni með börnunum okkar?

The basic neutral word order here is:

Subject – Verb – Infinitive – Adverb – Prepositional phrase – Prepositional phrase
Við – viljum – vera – lengur – í náttúrunni – með börnunum okkar

Icelandic word order is somewhat flexible, but there are strong preferences:

Við viljum vera lengur í náttúrunni með börnunum okkar. – most natural
Við viljum vera með börnunum okkar lengur í náttúrunni. – possible, different emphasis
Við viljum lengur vera í náttúrunni… – feels awkward / marked; not typical.

So stick with vera lengur rather than lengur vera in this type of sentence.

How do you pronounce some of these tricky words?

Approximate (English-friendly) pronunciations:

við – like vith (the ð is like soft th in this)
viljum – roughly VIL-yum
vera – VEH-ra (first syllable stressed)
lengur – LENG-ur (like leng
- ur)
í náttúrunni – ee NOWT-tu-rin-ni
- á like ow in now
- tt in náttúrunni is pronounced with a kind of strong ht sound in careful speech
börnunum – BURN-u-num
- ö like the vowel in British bird or German schön
okkar – OK-kar (both k’s clearly pronounced)

Stress is almost always on the first syllable in Icelandic words.