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Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég bíð þangað til pósturinn kemur. - I wait until the mail comes.

Hardcore Icelandic
/Lesson 32
/Ég bíð þangað til pósturinn kemur.

Ég bíð þangað til pósturinn kemur.

Word

Ég bíð þangað til pósturinn kemur.

Meaning

I wait until the mail comes.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Icelandic

Lesson

Breakdown of Ég bíð þangað til pósturinn kemur.

Questions & Answers about Ég bíð þangað til pósturinn kemur.

What does bíð come from, and how do I conjugate it?

bíð is the 1st person singular present tense of bíða (to wait).
Basic present tense:

ég bíð – I wait / I’m waiting
þú bíður – you wait
hann/hún/það bíður – he/she/it waits
við bíðum, þið bíðið, þeir/þær/þau bíða

Helpful other forms:

Past: ég beið (I waited)
Supine (used with hafa): ég hef beðið (I have waited)
Imperative: bíddu! (wait!)

Why does the sentence use þangað til? Isn’t þangað “to there”?

Yes, literally þangað is directional (to there), but þangað til is a fixed expression meaning until (time). It’s very common and doesn’t feel “spatial” in normal use—just temporal.

You’ll also see þar til meaning the same thing in many contexts.

What’s the difference between þangað til and þar til (and uns)?

pósturinn

the mail

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All can mean until:

þangað til – very common, neutral, often used for waiting until something happens
þar til – also common; many speakers use it interchangeably with þangað til
uns – a bit more literary/old-fashioned (still used, but less “everyday”)

In most everyday sentences like this, þangað til and þar til are both fine.

Should there be an að before the clause, like þangað til að pósturinn kemur?

Often no—your sentence is completely natural without að:

Ég bíð þangað til pósturinn kemur.

Adding að is possible for some speakers/styles, especially in longer or more complex sentences, but it’s not required here.

Why is it pósturinn and not póstinn or póstsins?

Because pósturinn is the subject of the verb kemur in the until-clause:

pósturinn kemur = the post comes

So it stays in the nominative (-urinn marks masculine definite nominative singular).

If you were using bíða with a direct object meaning wait for X, you might see different cases/structures, e.g.:

Ég bíð póstsins. (older/more formal; bíða
- genitive)
Ég bíð eftir póstinum. (very common; bíða eftir
- dative)

But in your sentence, you’re not “waiting for the post” as an object; you’re “waiting until” an event happens.

Does pósturinn mean “the mail” or “the postman”?

It can mean either depending on context:

pósturinn kemur often means the mail arrives (the delivery)
It can also be understood as the postman comes, especially if you’re talking about a person arriving

If you want to be explicit:

bréfberinn = the mail carrier/postman
pósturinn can stay as “the post/mail service/delivery” depending on what you mean

Why is the word order pósturinn kemur (subject before verb) in the second part?

Because til introduces a subordinate clause here (an until-clause). In Icelandic subordinate clauses usually have “normal” order:

pósturinn kemur (subject + verb)

In main clauses, Icelandic often follows V2 (the finite verb tends to be early), but subordinate clauses don’t follow the same V2 pattern.

Why is kemur in the present tense if the arrival is in the future?

Icelandic commonly uses the present tense for near-future or scheduled future events, especially after “until/when” type expressions—similar to English:

I’ll wait until the mail comes. (English also uses present in the until-clause)

So kemur is normal here even if you mean “will come.”

How do I pronounce tricky parts like Ég, bíð, þangað, and pósturinn?

A few pronunciation pointers (approximate):

Ég: sounds like yeh(g) (the g is often very soft or barely audible depending on speaker)
bíð: long vowel í (like ee), and ð is a voiced “th” sound (as in this)
þangað: þ is unvoiced “th” (as in thing); final ð is voiced “th” (often weak at the end)
pósturinn: stress on the first syllable (PÓS-), rolled/tapped r; the u in -urinn is a short vowel

Is Ég bíð more like “I wait” or “I am waiting”?

It can mean both. Icelandic present tense often covers both simple present and present continuous:

Ég bíð = I wait / I’m waiting

If you need to emphasize “right now,” you can add something like núna:

Ég bíð núna þangað til pósturinn kemur. (I’m waiting now until the mail comes.)

Could I also say Ég er að bíða þangað til pósturinn kemur?

Yes. vera að + infinitive is a common way to emphasize an action in progress:

Ég er að bíða þangað til pósturinn kemur. = I’m (in the middle of) waiting until the mail comes.

Your original Ég bíð þangað til pósturinn kemur. is already natural; the er að version just highlights the ongoing “right now” feeling a bit more.

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