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Við erum búin að panta borð á veitingastaðnum.

Við erum búin að panta borð á veitingastaðnum.
We have reserved a table at the restaurant.
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Questions & Answers about Við erum búin að panta borð á veitingastaðnum.

Why does the sentence use erum (present tense to be) if it’s talking about something already done?

Because vera + búinn/búin/búið + að + infinitive is an Icelandic “result/perfect-like” construction. It literally looks like present tense (we are) but it conveys a completed action with a present result: “we’re done with booking / we have booked.”

What exactly does búin að mean, grammatically?

búinn is an adjective/participle meaning finished / done.
In búin að panta, it functions like “finished (with) ordering/booking.” The að introduces the infinitive panta. So the structure is:

  • Við erum = we are
  • búin = finished/done (agreeing form)
  • að panta = to book/order
Why is it búin and not búnir or búnar?

Strictly speaking, búinn agrees with the gender/number of the subject:

  • Við erum búnir að ... (all-male group, or mixed group in traditional grammar)
  • Við erum búnar að ... (all-female group)
  • Við erum búin að ... (often used informally as a “default” by many speakers)

So búin here is a very common colloquial choice. In more formal/prescriptive usage you may see búnir/búnar depending on who við refers to.

Could I also say this with the “normal” perfect, like Við höfum pantað ...? What’s the difference?

Yes. Við höfum pantað borð ... is the straightforward perfect (“we have booked a table”).
Við erum búin að panta ... emphasizes being done with the task—it often feels more like “That’s taken care of / we’ve already sorted that.”

Both are natural; the búin að version is extremely common in everyday speech.

Why is there an að before panta?

Because að commonly marks an infinitive in Icelandic, similar to English to. In this construction, búin is followed by að + infinitive:

  • búin að panta = done (with) booking
Does panta mean “order” or “book” here?

Both meanings exist. panta can mean:

  • order (e.g., ordering food, ordering an item)
  • book/reserve (e.g., panta borð = reserve/book a table)

With borð (table), the natural interpretation is reserve/book.

Why is borð not definite (no “the”)? Shouldn’t it be borðið?

In Icelandic you usually keep it indefinite when you mean “a table (for us)” in the restaurant-reservation sense:

  • panta borð = reserve a table (normal)
  • panta borðið would mean a specific, already-known table (“reserve the table”), which is not the typical situation.
Why is it á veitingastaðnum and not í veitingastaðnum?

Both á and í can mean “in/at,” but with places like restaurants, shops, workplaces, events, etc., Icelandic very often uses á for “at” in the sense of “at that location/business”:

  • á veitingastaðnum = at the restaurant

You can sometimes use í if you’re emphasizing being physically inside the building, but á veitingastaðnum is the standard choice here.

Why does veitingastaðnum end in -num?

That ending shows dative + definite.

  • Base noun: veitingastaður (restaurant; masculine)
  • After á meaning location (“at”), Icelandic uses the dative:
    • dative singular (indefinite): veitingastað
  • Add the definite article (attached as a suffix in Icelandic):
    • dative singular definite: veitingastaðnum (= “the restaurant” in dative)

So á veitingastaðnum literally means “at the (restaurant).”

How do I pronounce the tricky parts: Við, erum, and veitingastaðnum?

Approximate tips (accent varies by speaker):

  • Við: the ð is usually a soft “th” sound, like in this (often very light).
  • erum: sounds roughly like EH-rum (with a rolled/tapped r).
  • veitingastaðnum: break it up: vei-tinga-stað-num.
    • stað contains ð (again a soft “th” sound), and the a is more open than in many English accents.

If you want, I can give IPA for your target accent (General American / RP) and a slow syllable-by-syllable guide.