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Í gær varð rafmagnsleysi í hverfinu, svo við kveiktum á kerti.

Í gær varð rafmagnsleysi í hverfinu, svo við kveiktum á kerti.
Yesterday there was a power outage in the neighborhood, so we lit a candle.
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Questions & Answers about Í gær varð rafmagnsleysi í hverfinu, svo við kveiktum á kerti.

Why does the sentence start with Í gær and then immediately varð—why isn’t the subject first?

Icelandic is typically a V2 language in main clauses: the finite verb usually comes in the second position.
So when you front a time expression like Í gær (Yesterday), the verb varð must come next, and the subject follows:

  • Í gær (1st position) + varð (2nd position) + rafmagnsleysi (subject)

If you didn’t front anything, a neutral order would be:

  • Rafmagnsleysi varð í hverfinu í gær. (possible, but less natural than placing the time first)
What exactly is varð—which verb is it, and what tense/person is it?

Varð is the past tense (preterite), 3rd person singular form of the verb verða (to become / to happen / to occur).

Common principal parts:

  • Infinitive: verða
  • Present: verð
  • Past: varð
  • Past participle: orðinn / orðið / orðin (agrees in gender/number)

Here varð is used in the sense “an outage occurred / there was an outage.”

Why use verða here instead of something like “to be” (vera)?

Verða often describes a change of state or something coming about (“it became / it happened”), which fits events like outages, accidents, changes in weather, etc.

Compare:

  • Það varð rafmagnsleysi. = an outage happened/occurred
  • Það var rafmagnsleysi. = there was an outage (more like stating an existing situation)

Both can exist, but varð emphasizes the event of it happening.

What does the word rafmagnsleysi consist of? It looks long.

It’s a compound noun:

  • rafmagn = electricity
  • -leysi = lack/absence (a suffix meaning “-lessness”)

So rafmagnsleysi literally means electricity-lack → “power outage / loss of electricity.”

You’ll see -leysi in other words too, e.g. atvinnuleysi (unemployment).

Why is there no word for “a” before rafmagnsleysi?

Icelandic doesn’t always use an indefinite article the way English does. With abstract/unbounded events or states (like “a power outage,” “rain,” “silence”), Icelandic often just uses the noun without an article.

You can make it more explicitly “an outage” in some contexts, but the bare noun is very common and natural here.

Why is it í hverfinu and not í hverfið—what case is that?

The preposition í changes case depending on meaning:

  • Location (where?) → dative
  • Motion into (where to?) → accusative

Here it means “in the neighborhood” (location), so it takes dative:

  • í hverfinu (dative)

If you were talking about moving into the neighborhood, you could get accusative:

  • flytja í hverfið = move into the neighborhood
What is hverfinu grammatically—why the -nu ending?

Hverfinu is:

  • the noun hverfi (neuter)
  • in dative singular
  • with the definite article attached (“the”)

So í hverfinu = “in the neighborhood.”

The -nu is the definite dative singular ending for many neuter nouns like this.

Can you show the basic declension of hverfi (singular)?

Sure—hverfi is neuter:

Indefinite singular:

  • Nominative: hverfi
  • Accusative: hverfi
  • Dative: hverfi
  • Genitive: hverfis

Definite singular:

  • Nominative: hverfið
  • Accusative: hverfið
  • Dative: hverfinu
  • Genitive: hverfisins

So the sentence uses dative definite: hverfinu.

What does svo do here, and does it affect word order?

Here svo functions like a coordinating connector meaning “so / therefore”, linking two clauses.

Crucially: after svo in this usage, the following clause typically has normal subject–verb order (no V2 inversion triggered by fronting), so:

  • svo við kveiktum ... (“so we lit ...”)

That matches what you see: við (subject) comes before kveiktum (verb).

What is kveiktum—what verb is it, and how is it formed?

Kveiktum is the past tense, 1st person plural form of kveikja.

Forms:

  • Infinitive: kveikja
  • Present (við): við kveikjum
  • Past (við): við kveiktum

It’s a regular/weak past pattern ending in -tum for við in many verbs.

Why is it kveikja á (with á)—why not just use kveikja with a direct object?

In Icelandic, “turn on / switch on / light (a lamp/candle)” is commonly expressed with the verb + preposition:

  • kveikja á + dative

So:

  • kveikja á kerti = light a candle
  • kveikja á ljósinu = turn on the light

Without á, kveikja tends to mean “ignite/kindle” more generally and is used differently in many contexts. The á-construction is the everyday one for switching/lighting things on.

If á takes the dative, why does kerti look unchanged?

Because kerti is neuter, and in the singular indefinite, nominative/accusative/dative are all the same form: kerti.

Its singular forms are:

  • N/Acc/Dat: kerti
  • Genitive: kerts

So it is dative here, it just doesn’t look different.

Why is it á kerti (singular)? Could it be plural?

It’s singular because the speaker lit one candle.

Plural is totally possible, and then the dative plural would appear:

  • svo við kveiktum á kertum = so we lit candles

Notice the plural dative form kertum.

Is the comma before svo required?

It’s very common (and often expected) to use a comma when two independent clauses are joined and the second clause starts with a connector like svo meaning “therefore/so.”

So:

  • Í gær varð ..., svo við ... is standard punctuation.

In more informal writing you may see variation, but the comma is a good default.

Any pronunciation pitfalls in this sentence for English speakers?

A few common ones:

  • Í gær: í is a long [i]-type vowel; gær is roughly like “guy-” + an open vowel (often approximated [cjair] depending on accent).
  • varð: the ð is a voiced “th” sound [ð] (like in this) after a vowel, but can be weaker in fast speech.
  • rafmagnsleysi: stress is on the first syllable: RAF-... (Icelandic almost always stresses the first syllable).
  • hverfinu: hv is often like kv ([kʰv] or [kv] depending on speaker).
  • kveiktum: kv cluster again; ei is a diphthong (roughly “ay” but Icelandic-specific).