Breakdown of Hver sem er getur komið í kvöld.
Questions & Answers about Hver sem er getur komið í kvöld.
What does hver sem er mean here?
As a whole, hver sem er means anyone / anybody.
Word-for-word, it is something like whoever it is, but in natural English the best translation in this sentence is simply anyone.
This is a very common Icelandic pattern:
- hver sem er = anyone
- hvað sem er = anything
- hvar sem er = anywhere
What is sem doing in this phrase?
Why is er there? Are there two verbs in the sentence?
Yes, there are two verb forms on the surface, but er belongs to the fixed expression hver sem er.
- er is the present-tense form of vera = to be
- hver sem er literally feels a bit like whoever it is
In practice, though, learners should usually recognize hver sem er as one unit meaning anyone.
The main verb of the sentence is getur = can / is able to.
Why is it hver and not another form?
Because hver sem er is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case.
In this sentence, anyone is the one doing the action of being able to come, so nominative is the right form.
In other roles, the phrase can change:
- nominative: hver sem er
- accusative: hvern sem er
- dative: hverjum sem er
- genitive: hvers sem er
Why is it komið instead of koma?
After geta, Icelandic normally uses the supine form, often called sagnbót, rather than the basic infinitive.
For koma, that form is komið.
So:
- geta komið = can come
- hefur komið = has come
This often surprises English speakers, because komið may look like a past participle they have seen elsewhere, but after geta it is the expected form.
Does komið mean the action is in the past?
No.
The tense of the sentence comes from getur, which is present tense. So the meaning is present or near-future:
Anyone can come tonight.
Even though komið looks like a form learners may associate with the perfect, it does not make this sentence past.
What does í kvöld mean exactly?
Í kvöld means tonight or this evening.
It is a common time expression in Icelandic, and it is best learned as a set phrase. Even though í often means in, the whole phrase í kvöld is the normal way to say tonight.
Is the word order normal here?
Could hver sem er be translated as whoever?
Can this pattern be used with other question words too?
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