Breakdown of Ég bíð í smástund, svo fer ég heim.
Questions & Answers about Ég bíð í smástund, svo fer ég heim.
Icelandic often repeats the subject pronoun in coordinated clauses, especially in everyday style: Ég bíð …, svo fer ég ….
You can omit it in the second clause in some contexts (… svo fer heim), but that sounds more “note-like” or informal and can be less clear. Keeping ég is the safest, most natural choice for learners.
Both bíð (from bíða, to wait) and fer (from fara, to go) are present tense forms. Icelandic commonly uses the present to talk about near-future actions when the context makes the sequence clear—similar to English I’ll wait a moment, then I’ll go home, but literally I wait …, then I go ….
A rough learner-friendly guide:
- Ég ≈ yehgh (the g is a soft sound; in careful speech it’s present, in casual speech it can be very light)
- bíð ≈ beeth (long í like ee)
- í ≈ ee
- smástund ≈ smow-stund (with á like ow in now for many speakers; u in stund is rounded)
- svo ≈ svoh
- fer ≈ fehr
- heim ≈ haym (like same with h)
(Exact sounds vary by region, but this will be understood.)
The preposition í often means in/for with durations in Icelandic.
So bíða í smástund is literally to wait for a short while. With time spans, í + accusative is very common.
In í smástund, smástund is accusative singular, because í takes the accusative when it indicates duration/extent (or direction/motion).
The base noun is stund (a while, a moment), feminine; smá- means small/short and is attached as a prefix.
Yes, smástund is typically written as one compound word. Icelandic frequently forms compounds like this. You may also see the idea expressed differently, e.g. í stutta stund (for a short while), but í smástund is very common and natural.
Here svo functions like then/and then, marking the next step in a sequence:
… , svo fer ég heim = …, then I go home.
It can also mean so (result) in other contexts, but in this sentence it’s primarily sequencing.
In Icelandic, svo can behave like an adverb or a connector. In svo fer ég heim, the verb fer comes early (verb-second style in main-clause word order), which is very typical in Icelandic.
svo ég fer heim is possible but tends to feel like so that I go home / so I go home (as a consequence) depending on context, and it’s less like the simple “then”-sequence reading.
The comma separates two main clauses: Ég bíð í smástund and svo fer ég heim. In Icelandic writing, it’s common to use a comma to mark this kind of clause boundary, especially with connectors like svo, og, etc.
Both exist, but they’re used differently:
- bíða on its own can mean to wait (for a period of time) → Ég bíð í smástund is perfect without eftir.
- bíða eftir + dative is used when you wait for someone/something → Ég bíð eftir strætónum (I’m waiting for the bus).
So eftir is not needed here because you’re waiting a while, not waiting for a thing/person.
Yes, Ég bíð smástund is also used and understood as I’ll wait a moment / I’m waiting a moment.
Using í (Ég bíð í smástund) is very common and slightly more explicit about the duration-as-a-span.
heim means home (towards home) and works as an adverb, so you don’t need a preposition equivalent to English to.
- fara heim = go home
For location (being at home), Icelandic uses heima: - vera heima = be at home