Hver sem er getur komið í kvöld.

to be able

Breakdown of Hver sem er getur komið í kvöld.

• koma: to come
• í kvöld: tonight
• hver sem er: anyone

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?

Here sem is part of a pattern that turns a question word into a more general meaning like whoever or anyone.

Compare:

• Hver getur komið í kvöld? = Who can come tonight?
• Hver sem er getur komið í kvöld. = Anyone can come tonight.

So sem helps change hver from plain who? into the idea whoever / anyone.

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.