Breakdown of Við erum búin að panta borð á veitingastaðnum.
við
we
borðið
the table
veitingastaðurinn
the restaurant
á
at
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 ? What’s the difference?