Ég slekk á hljóðkerfinu þegar barnið sefur.

I turn off the sound system when the child is sleeping.

Breakdown of Ég slekk á hljóðkerfinu þegar barnið sefur.

• ég: I
• barnið: the child
• sofa: to sleep
• þegar: when

Questions & Answers about Ég slekk á hljóðkerfinu þegar barnið sefur.

What is the dictionary form (infinitive) of slekk, and why does it look different?

Slekk is the 1st person singular present tense of the verb slökkva (to turn off / extinguish).

This verb has a stem change in the present singular:

• infinitive: slökkva
• ég slekk
• þú slekkur
• hann/hún/það slekkur
• við slökkvum, þið slökkvið, þeir/þær/þau slökkva

So the ö in slökk- often appears as e in the singular present (slekk-).

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Why is there an á after slekk? Shouldn’t the verb take a direct object?

In Icelandic, slökkva is commonly used with the preposition á: slökkva á einhverju = turn something off.

So the structure is:

• slekk á + noun (in the dative case)

It’s basically an idiomatic “verb + preposition” pairing, similar to English “turn off” being a fixed expression.

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Why is it hljóðkerfinu (with -inu)?