Ég les samninginn vandlega áður en ég undirrita hann.

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Breakdown of Ég les samninginn vandlega áður en ég undirrita hann.

• lesa: to read
• áður en: before
• undirrita: to sign

Questions & Answers about Ég les samninginn vandlega áður en ég undirrita hann.

Why does the sentence start with Ég and what case is it in?

Ég means I and it’s in the nominative case, which is the normal case for the subject of the sentence. Icelandic marks subjects and objects with case more than English does, so you’ll often hear learners talk about “which case should this noun/pronoun be in?”

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What tense is les in, and why isn’t there a separate future tense?

Les is present tense (1st person singular) of að lesa (to read). Icelandic often uses the present tense for things that are generally true, habitual, or about the near future, depending on context—so a sentence like this can naturally describe what you do before signing (either as a habit or in a specific situation).

If you want to be more explicitly future-like, you can also use mun + infinitive (e.g., Ég mun lesa...), but it’s not required here.

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Why is samninginn written with -inn attached to it?

That -inn is the definite article (“the”) attached as a suffix.

• samningur = a contract (dictionary form, nominative singular)
• samninginn = the contract (accusative singular, masculine, definite)

So Icelandic typically doesn’t use a separate word for “the” the way English does; it attaches it to the noun.

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Why is it samninginn and not samningur?