Fyrirlesturinn verður stuttur, en við munum hafa fengið margar góðar hugmyndir.

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Breakdown of Fyrirlesturinn verður stuttur, en við munum hafa fengið margar góðar hugmyndir.

• við: we
• mun: will
• hafa: to have

Questions & Answers about Fyrirlesturinn verður stuttur, en við munum hafa fengið margar góðar hugmyndir.

Why does fyrirlesturinn end in -inn? Where is “the”?

Icelandic usually attaches the definite article to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like the.

• The base noun is fyrirlestur = lecture.
• -inn is the masculine singular definite ending in the nominative case.
• fyrirlesturinn therefore literally means “lecture-the” = “the lecture.”

Because fyrirlesturinn is the subject of the sentence, it stands in the nominative singular, and for a masculine noun that gives the ending -inn for the definite form.

Is verður a future tense? Why not just use a form of vera for “to be”?

Formally, verður is the present tense of the verb verða (to become, to turn out, to get, will be), but Icelandic very often uses the present to talk about the future.

• Fyrirlesturinn verður stuttur literally = The lecture becomes/turns out short, but in natural English we say: “The lecture will be short.”

Icelandic doesn’t have a special, separate future tense like English; instead it uses:

• the present tense (as here: verður), or
• the auxiliary munu
  • infinitive (e.g. mun verða).

So verður here carries a future meaning (“will be”) even though it’s grammatically present tense.

Could we also say Fyrirlesturinn mun vera stuttur? Would that mean the same?