Við verðum að virða reglurnar í skólanum.

Við means we.

Yes, Icelandic often includes subject pronouns, even though the verb ending already gives person and number. So:

• Við verðum = we must
• not just bare Verðum in a normal statement

You can sometimes omit or rearrange things in special contexts, but for a standard sentence, við is the natural choice.

Verðum is the 1st person plural present tense of verða.

In this sentence, verða is not being used in its basic sense become. Instead, the pattern:

• verða að + infinitive

means must / have to.

So:

• ég verð að = I must
• þú verður að = you must
• við verðum að = we must

This is a very common Icelandic structure.

That is just one of the standard ways Icelandic expresses obligation.

Literally, learners often first meet verða as become, but in the construction verða að + verb, it means something like have to / must.

So:

• Við verðum að virða reglurnar = We must respect the rules

This is a normal everyday construction, not an unusual idiom.

Here að is the infinitive marker, similar to English to in to respect.

So:

• virða = to respect
• að virða = to respect

After verða að, Icelandic uses að + infinitive:

• verða að fara = must go
• verða að lesa = must read
• verða að virða = must respect

English says must respect without to, but Icelandic uses að in this pattern.

Virða usually means respect.

Depending on context, it can also mean something closer to:

• observe
• comply with
• honor

With reglur (rules), it often has the practical sense of respecting / following / obeying the rules.

So in this sentence, virða reglurnar is very natural and means something like:

• respect the rules
• follow the rules
• obey the rules

Reglurnar means the rules.

The base noun is:

• regla = a rule

Plural indefinite:

• reglur = rules

Plural definite:

• reglurnar = the rules

Icelandic usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So:

• reglur = rules
• reglurnar = the rules

Yes. Here reglurnar is the direct object of virða, so it appears in the accusative plural.

For this noun, the plural nominative and plural accusative happen to look the same:

• reglur = rules
• reglurnar = the rules

So even though the form looks simple, its role in the sentence is object, not subject.

In other words:

• við = subject
• verðum að virða = verb phrase
• reglurnar = object

Because í can take different cases depending on meaning.

With location (in / at somewhere), í takes the dative. With movement into somewhere, í takes the accusative.

So:

• í skólanum = in / at the school → location, so dative
• í skólann = into the school → motion, so accusative

In your sentence, the meaning is location: the rules are being respected in/at the school, so Icelandic uses í skólanum.

It shows both case and definiteness.

The noun is:

• skóli = school

Some useful forms are:

• skóli = a school
• skólinn = the school
• skóla = school (accusative/dative indefinite, depending on context)
• skólanum = the school (dative singular)

So in í skólanum, the ending tells you this is:

• singular
• definite
• dative

That matches the preposition í when it means location.

It can often be understood as either in the school or at the school, depending on context.

Literally, it is in the school / at the school. In English, we often choose the smoother phrase at school in similar contexts, but Icelandic is referring to a specific school setting here.

So reglurnar í skólanum naturally means:

• the rules at school
• the rules in the school

depending on the situation and the translation style.

Yes. That would also be grammatical and natural.

• þurfa að = need to / have to
• verða að = must / have to

There is a lot of overlap. Often:

• verða að can sound a bit stronger, more like must
• þurfa að can sound a bit more like need to / have to

But in many everyday sentences, both are possible.

Yes, but Icelandic normally keeps the finite verb in the second position in main clauses.

The basic sentence is:

• Við verðum að virða reglurnar í skólanum.

You can front another element for emphasis:

• Í skólanum verðum við að virða reglurnar.

Notice what happens: when Í skólanum moves to the front, verðum still stays in second position, and við moves after it.

So Icelandic word order is flexible, but not random. The verb-second pattern is very important.

A rough learner-friendly approximation is:

• Við verðum að virða reglurnar í skólanum
• vith VER-thum ath VIR-tha REH-klur-nar ee SKOH-la-num

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• ð is like the th in this
• í is a long ee sound
• að is often pronounced more lightly than learners expect
• rl in Icelandic can sound different from English and may take practice

This approximation is not perfect, but it can help you get started.