Breakdown of Við getum hittst á hvaða kaffihúsi sem er.
Questions & Answers about Við getum hittst á hvaða kaffihúsi sem er.
What does getum mean here?
Why is there no að after getum?
Because geta works like a modal verb here. It is followed by a bare infinitive, just like English can:
Við getum hittst = We can meet
not we can to meet.
What verb is hittst from?
Why use hittast/hittst instead of hitta?
Hitta usually means meet / find / see someone and normally takes an object.
Hittast means meet one another or get together.
So:
- Við hittum Jón = We meet John
- Við hittumst = We meet each other
What does hvaða ... sem er mean?
This is a very common Icelandic pattern meaning any / whichever.
So á hvaða kaffihúsi sem er means at any café or at whatever café you like.
What exactly is sem er doing?
It is part of a fixed expression. You should usually learn hvaða ... sem er as a whole pattern rather than trying to translate it word for word.
Similar expressions are:
- hver sem er = anyone
- hvar sem er = anywhere
- hvenær sem er = anytime
So here, sem er helps give the meaning any / whichever.
Why is it kaffihúsi and not kaffihús?
Because kaffihúsi is the dative singular form of kaffihús. After á when it means at/in a place (location, not movement), Icelandic uses the dative.
So:
- á kaffihúsi = at a café
- á kaffihús = to a café (motion toward it)
Why is it á and not í?
Icelandic often uses á with public places and venues where English would often say at. So á kaffihúsi is the natural way to say at a café.
Using í would sound more like you are stressing being inside the building physically.
Why doesn’t hvaða change form here?
Because hvaða is generally indeclinable in this use. The noun shows the case instead. That is why you get:
- hvaða kaffihús
- á hvaða kaffihúsi
- frá hvaða kaffihúsi
The case ending appears on kaffihús, not on hvaða.
Why is kaffihúsi singular if the meaning is any café?
Because Icelandic, like English, often uses the singular in this kind of indefinite meaning.
Any café does not mean several cafés at once; it means any one café you choose.
Could I say á einhverju kaffihúsi instead?
Not with the same meaning.
á einhverju kaffihúsi means at some café or at a certain café.
á hvaða kaffihúsi sem er means at any café, with no preference.
Is the word order anything special here?
This sentence has normal main-clause word order:
- Við = subject
- getum = finite verb
- hittst = infinitive
- á hvaða kaffihúsi sem er = prepositional phrase
So it is a straightforward sentence. The only larger pattern to notice is that Icelandic normally keeps the finite verb early in the clause.
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