Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Þau eru að ræða hvort þau eigi að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús. - They are discussing whether they should rent an apartment or buy a small house.

þeir – masculine plural (“they” for a group of males)
þær – feminine plural (“they” for a group of females)
þau – neuter plural, used:
- for mixed-gender groups
- when the gender is unknown or irrelevant

So Þau eru að ræða… means “They are discussing…”, and suggests either a mixed group or a group where the speaker doesn’t want to specify gender.

How does eru að ræða work? Is it like the English present continuous “are discussing”?

Yes, eru að ræða functions very similarly to the English “are discussing”.

Structure:

eru – 3rd person plural of vera “to be”
að – here, part of the “vera að + infinitive” construction
ræða – infinitive “to discuss”

vera + að + infinitive is often used to talk about something happening right now or around now:

Þau eru að ræða… – “They are (in the process of) discussing…”
Ég er að lesa. – “I am reading.”

Compared with the simple present:

Þau ræða það oft. – “They discuss it often.” (habitually)
Þau eru að ræða það núna. – “They are discussing it now.”

So here it implies an ongoing conversation rather than a general habit.

What exactly does ræða mean, and why isn’t there an “um” after it?

Ræða is a verb meaning “to discuss / to talk about”.

In Icelandic you can say:

ræða eitthvað – “discuss something” (no preposition)
ræða um eitthvað – literally “discuss about something”

Both are used, but ræða + object (accusative) without um is very common and completely correct.

So:

Þau eru að ræða hvort þau eigi að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús.
“They are discussing whether they should rent an apartment or buy a small house.”

If you added um, you’d get:

Þau eru að ræða um hvort þau eigi að… – also grammatical, just a bit heavier in style.

What does hvort do in this sentence?

Hvort here means “whether” and introduces an indirect yes/no question (a content clause).

English:
“They are discussing whether they should rent an apartment or buy a small house.”

Icelandic:

hvort þau eigi að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús

Key points:

hvort introduces the choice / uncertainty:
- rent or buy?
It normally triggers subjunctive in the verb that follows (here: eigi).

You often see hvort after verbs like:

spyrja – to ask (someone)
vita – to know
velta fyrir sér – to wonder
ræða – to discuss

Example:

Ég veit ekki hvort hann komi. – “I don’t know whether he will come.”

Why is it þau eigi and not þau eiga? What is this verb form?

Eigi is the subjunctive form of eiga (to own / to have to / should) in the present tense.

Indicative vs subjunctive:

þau eiga – “they have / they own / they must” (normal factual statement)
þau eigi – subjunctive, used in:
- indirect questions
- reported speech
- hypotheticals / uncertainty

Because hvort introduces an indirect question (whether they should…), Icelandic typically uses the subjunctive:

Þau ræða hvort þau eigi að leigja…
literally: “They discuss whether they should / are to rent…”

You could hear þau eiga in casual speech, but þau eigi is the standard, textbook form here.

What is the function of að in eigi að leigja? Is it the same að as in eru að ræða?

No, there are two different uses of að here:

eru að ræða – vera + að + infinitive
- að is part of the progressive construction: “are discussing”.
eigi að leigja – eiga + að + infinitive
- here, að is an infinitive marker, like English “to”:
  - að leigja – “to rent”
  - að kaupa – “to buy”

So in the sentence you have:

eru að ræða – “are discussing”
eigi að leigja – “should / are to rent”
(eigi að) kaupa – “(should / are to) buy” (infinitive implied from the earlier eigi að)

Why is íbúð in that form, and what case is it?

Íbúð here is in the accusative singular and is indefinite.

Base form (nominative): íbúð – “apartment / flat” (feminine)
Accusative singular of many feminine nouns ending in -ð is unchanged:
- nom: íbúð
- acc: íbúð

The verb leigja (“to rent”) takes a direct object in the accusative:

leigja íbúð – “to rent an apartment”
leigja íbúðina – “to rent the apartment” (-ina = definite article)

So:

að leigja íbúð – “to rent an apartment” (any apartment, not a specific one)

Why is it lítið hús and not something like lítill hús?

Because hús is neuter singular, the adjective must also be neuter singular.

hús – “house” (neuter, singular)
lítill – base form “small” (masc. nominative singular)
lítið – neuter nominative/accusative singular form of “small”

Adjectives in Icelandic must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe:

lítill maður – “small man” (masc.)
lítil kona – “small woman” (fem.)
lítið hús – “small house” (neut.)

Here, kaupa lítið hús has hús as a direct object → accusative neuter singular, but neuter nominative and accusative look the same: lítið hús.

Why don’t we repeat að before kaupa: why not að leigja íbúð eða að kaupa lítið hús?

You can repeat að, but it’s not necessary and often omitted when the structure is parallel and clear.

Full, explicit version:

hvort þau eigi að leigja íbúð eða að kaupa lítið hús

Common, natural version:

hvort þau eigi að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús

Once að (and eigi) have been introduced before the first verb (leigja), they are understood to “carry over” to the second verb (kaupa). This is similar to English:

“whether they should rent an apartment or buy a small house”
(not: “should rent… or should buy…” every time, though that is also allowed)

What is the overall word order of the clause starting with hvort? Is it like English?

The hvort-clause is:

hvort þau eigi að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús

Word order:

hvort (whether)
þau (they)
eigi (should; verb)
að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús (infinitive phrase)

This is fairly close to English:

“whether they should rent an apartment or buy a small house”

Two things to notice:

The finite verb (eigi) comes right after the subject þau, which is normal in Icelandic embedded clauses.
The whole hvort-clause functions as the object of ræða:
- Þau eru að ræða [hvort þau eigi að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús].

Could I simply say Þau eru að ræða að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús without hvort? Would it mean the same?

No, that would change the meaning.

Þau eru að ræða hvort þau eigi að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús.
→ “They are discussing whether they should rent an apartment or buy a small house.”
(explicit choice / question between two options)

If you remove hvort, you get:

Þau eru að ræða að leigja íbúð eða kaupa lítið hús.

This sounds more like:

“They are discussing (the idea of) renting an apartment or buying a small house.”

So it becomes less of a yes/no “whether” question and more just talking about those options in general. Native speakers would usually keep hvort for the “whether X or Y” meaning.

Can you roughly show how to pronounce Þau, ræða, and hvort for an English speaker?

Very rough approximations (not exact IPA, just a guide):

Þau – [θøy]
- Þ like th in “thin”
- au something like “oi” in “boy”, but fronted; often approximated as “thoi” with rounded lips.
ræða – roughly [ˈrai-ða]
- æ like “eye”
- ð like th in “this” (soft th)
- final a like a short “uh / a” in “sofa”.
hvort – roughly [kʰvɔr̥t]
- hv often sounds like kv to English ears
- o like the “o” in “or”, but shorter
- final rt pronounced together, with a voiceless r
  - t.

These are approximations, but they’ll get you close enough to be understood.

What is the basic literal breakdown of the whole sentence?

Word-by-word:

Þau – they (mixed/unspecified gender)
eru – are
að ræða – (to) discuss / discussing
hvort – whether
þau – they
eigi – should / (subjunctive of “eiga”)
að leigja – to rent
íbúð – apartment (accusative, “an apartment”)
eða – or
kaupa – (to) buy
lítið – small (neuter, agreeing with “hús”)
hús – house

Putting it together very literally: > “They are (in the process of) discussing whether they should to-rent apartment or to-buy small house.”
Natural English: > “They are discussing whether they should rent an apartment or buy a small house.”