Við verðum að hlusta á báðar hliðarnar.

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

So:

• ég verð = I become / I must
• við verðum = we become / we must

In this sentence, við verðum means we must because it is part of the construction verða að + infinitive.

Yes, on its own, verða often means to become.

But Icelandic also has the very common pattern:

• verða að + infinitive

This means must, have to, or need to.

So:

• Við verðum að hlusta = We must listen
• literally, you can think of it as something like We become obliged to listen, but in normal English it is simply We must listen.

This is a very important structure to learn.

Here að is the infinitive marker, like English to before a verb.

So:

• að hlusta = to listen

In the pattern verða að + infinitive, the að connects the finite verb to the infinitive:

• verðum að hlusta = must listen

Be careful: Icelandic að can also mean at as a preposition in other contexts, but here it is just marking the infinitive.

Because hlusta normally takes the preposition á when you say what someone is listening to.

So:

• hlusta á einhvern = listen to someone
• hlusta á eitthvað = listen to something

That means:

• hlusta á báðar hliðarnar = listen to both sides

This is something you usually just have to learn with the verb: hlusta á is the standard combination.

Báðar is a form of báðir, which means both.

It has to agree with the noun it describes in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, hliðarnar is feminine plural accusative, so báðir changes to báðar.

That is why you get:

• báðar hliðarnar = both sides

For an English speaker, this feels unfamiliar because English both does not change form, but Icelandic adjectives and pronoun-like words often do.

Hliðarnar is the definite form: the sides.

• hliðar = sides
• hliðarnar = the sides

In Icelandic, the definite article is usually added to the end of the noun, not written as a separate word like English the.

So:

• hlið = side
• hliðar = sides
• hliðarnar = the sides

In this sentence, báðar hliðarnar is the natural way to say both sides.

That is a very natural question. Icelandic often uses the definite noun in places where English would not.

So although báðar hliðarnar literally looks like both the sides, it is simply the normal Icelandic way to express both sides in this context.

Languages do not always match article usage exactly. This is one of those places where Icelandic and English behave differently.

Because hlusta á governs the accusative.

The important thing is not just the preposition á by itself, but the whole verb phrase:

• hlusta á + accusative

That is why you get:

• báðar hliðarnar rather than a dative form like báðum hliðunum

It is true that á can take different cases in different situations, but with hlusta á, learners should memorize the pattern as:

• hlusta á einhvern / eitthvað

It is usually figurative here.

Hlið can mean a literal side, but in a sentence like this, báðar hliðarnar usually means:

• both sides of an argument
• both viewpoints
• both parties’ perspectives

So the Icelandic works the same way English does: side can be physical or figurative depending on context.

In normal Icelandic, you usually do include the subject pronoun, so við is the standard form here.

Even though verðum already shows we, Icelandic is generally not a language that regularly drops subject pronouns in ordinary sentences.

So the normal full sentence is:

• Við verðum að hlusta á báðar hliðarnar.

You might see the subject omitted in very informal contexts, notes, or where the subject is extremely obvious, but as a learner, it is safest to keep við.

This is the normal basic word order for a main clause:

• Við = subject
• verðum = finite verb
• að hlusta = infinitive phrase
• á báðar hliðarnar = prepositional phrase

So the structure is essentially:

• Subject + finite verb + infinitive phrase + object/complement

Also, Icelandic is a verb-second language in main clauses. That means if something else comes first, the finite verb still usually stays in second position.

For example:

• Í svona máli verðum við að hlusta á báðar hliðarnar.
• In a case like this, we must listen to both sides.

Notice that when another element is moved to the front, verðum still comes second, and við moves after it.