Ég blæs á kaffið áður en ég drekk það.

I blow on the coffee before I drink it.

Breakdown of Ég blæs á kaffið áður en ég drekk það.

• ég: I
• drekka: to drink
• það: it
• áður en: before
• kaffið: the coffee
• blása á: to blow out

Questions & Answers about Ég blæs á kaffið áður en ég drekk það.

Why is it blæs and not blása?

Blása is the infinitive (to blow).
Blæs is the present tense, 1st person singular form: ég blæs = I blow.
Many Icelandic verbs change their vowel in the present tense (ablaut), so blása → blæs is normal.

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What does blása á mean, and why is á used here?

In Icelandic, blása á + accusative is the idiomatic way to say to blow on (something), like blowing on hot food/drink to cool it.
Here, á isn’t the basic meaning on/top of so much as part of a fixed verb + preposition pattern: blása á.

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Why is it kaffið (with -ið)?

Kaffi = coffee (indefinite).
Kaffið = the coffee (definite), formed by attaching the definite article to the noun: kaffi + -ð/-ið.
So the sentence is talking about a specific coffee you’re about to drink.

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What case is kaffið in, and how do we know?

It’s accusative because blása á governs the accusative case.
Also, kaffi is a neuter noun, and for neuter singular, nominative and accusative often look the same in form (so you rely on the verb/preposition pattern to know it’s accusative).

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Why do we need það at the end? Doesn’t kaffið already tell us what we’re drinking?

Icelandic commonly uses a pronoun to refer back to a previously mentioned object, especially in a second clause.
So ég drekk það = I drink it, with það referring to kaffið.
You can sometimes repeat the noun (ég drekk kaffið), but using það is very natural and avoids repetition.

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Why is the pronoun það (neuter) and not hann or hún?

Pronouns agree with the grammatical gender of the noun they refer to.
Kaffi is neuter, so the correct pronoun is það (it).
Hann is masculine (he/it for masculine nouns) and hún is feminine (she/it for feminine nouns).

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How does áður en work here? Is it like English before?

Yes: áður en is a very common way to say before introducing a clause.
Structure: [main clause], áður en [subordinate clause].
So: Ég blæs á kaffið (main clause) + áður en ég drekk það (subordinate clause).

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Why is the word order áður en ég drekk það and not something like áður en drekk ég það?

In subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like áður en, Icelandic typically uses subject–verb order:

• áður en ég drekk það (subject ég before verb drekk)
  In main clauses Icelandic often has “verb-second” word order, but the conjunction en signals a subordinate clause where the verb does not jump forward in the same way.

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What form is drekk, and how does it relate to drekka?

Drekka is the infinitive (to drink).
Drekk is present tense, 1st person singular: ég drekk = I drink.
This is another common vowel/consonant change pattern in Icelandic verbs.

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How is this sentence pronounced (roughly)?

A practical approximation (varies by accent):

• Ég ≈ “yegh” (the g is often soft; the vowel is like yeh)
• blæs ≈ “blies” (like bl
  • eyes, but shorter)
• á = “ow” (like cow, but a bit more rounded)
• kaffið ≈ “KAH-feeth” (the ð is like the th in this)
• áður ≈ “OW-thur” (again ð like th in this)
• en ≈ “en”
• drekk ≈ “drek(k)” (short e, crisp kk)
• það ≈ “thath” (with th as in this)