Þeir drekka kaffi á morgnana.

to drink

Breakdown of Þeir drekka kaffi á morgnana.

• kaffi: the coffee
• á: in
• morguninn: the morning
• þeir: those

Questions & Answers about Þeir drekka kaffi á morgnana.

Why does the sentence start with Þeir? What exactly does it mean?

Þeir means they.

It is the 3rd person plural subject pronoun, used for:

• a group of men, or
• a mixed-gender group

So in this sentence, Þeir is the subject: the people who are doing the drinking.

A group of only women would normally be þær instead.

Why is the verb drekka and not something like drekkur?

Because the subject is þeir (they), the verb has to match 3rd person plural.

The present tense of að drekka (to drink) goes like this:

• ég drekk — I drink
• þú drekkur — you drink
• hann/hún/það drekkur — he/she/it drinks
• við drekkum — we drink
• þið drekkið — you all drink
• þeir/þær/þau drekka — they drink

So Þeir drekka = They drink.

Is drekka here the infinitive, or is it a finite verb form?

It is a finite present-tense form, even though it looks the same as the infinitive.

That can be confusing for learners, because að drekka means to drink, and the finite form for they is also drekka.

So:

• að drekka = to drink
• þeir drekka = they drink

The að is what clearly marks the infinitive.

Why is it kaffi with no word for a or some?

Icelandic does not have an indefinite article like English a/an.

So kaffi can mean:

• coffee
• some coffee
• a coffee, depending on context

In this sentence, drekka kaffi simply means drink coffee.

If Icelandic wants to make the noun definite, it usually adds the article to the end of the noun rather than using a separate word like English the.

What case is kaffi, and why?

Kaffi is the direct object of drekka, and drekka normally takes the accusative case.

So the sentence structure is:

• Þeir — subject
• drekka — verb
• kaffi — direct object in the accusative
• á morgnana — time expression

In this particular noun, kaffi, the nominative and accusative singular look the same, so you do not see a change in form.

What does á morgnana literally mean, and why is morgnana plural?

Á morgnana literally means something like on the mornings, but in natural English it means in the mornings.

The plural is used because this is a habitual expression: it refers to mornings in general, not just one specific morning.

So:

• á morgnana = in the mornings
• idea: this happens regularly or usually

This is a very common Icelandic way to express repeated time.

Why is there a definite ending in morgnana?

Because morgnana includes the definite article.

The base plural object form is related to morgna (mornings), and the ending -na adds the sense of the.

So á morgnana is literally close to on the mornings, but idiomatically it means in the mornings or in the morning(s) as a habit.

This is one of those places where Icelandic sounds more definite than English, even though the natural translation in English may not always include the.

Why is the preposition á used here? Doesn’t it usually mean on?

Yes, á often means on, but prepositions do not match perfectly across languages.

In time expressions, Icelandic often uses á where English uses in. So:

• á morgnana = in the mornings

This is best learned as a set expression.

It is very common for prepositions to behave differently from what an English speaker expects, so it is usually safer to learn the whole phrase rather than translating each word separately.

How is á morgnana different from á morgun and í morgun?

This is a very common confusion.

• á morgnana = in the mornings / habitually
• á morgun = tomorrow
• í morgun = this morning

So these three are quite different:

• Þeir drekka kaffi á morgnana. — They drink coffee in the mornings.
• Þeir drekka kaffi á morgun. — They will drink coffee tomorrow. / They drink coffee tomorrow.
• Þeir drukku kaffi í morgun. — They drank coffee this morning.

Can the word order change, or is this the only correct order?

This is the most neutral word order:

• Þeir drekka kaffi á morgnana.

But Icelandic word order can change, especially when you want to emphasize the time phrase. For example:

• Á morgnana drekka þeir kaffi.

That also means They drink coffee in the mornings.

A useful thing to know is that Icelandic often follows a verb-second pattern, so if you move Á morgnana to the front, the finite verb drekka still comes early, before þeir.

Does this sentence mean they are drinking coffee right now, or that they do it habitually?

It normally has a habitual meaning:

• They drink coffee in the mornings
• They usually drink coffee in the morning

The phrase á morgnana strongly suggests a repeated routine, not an action happening right now.

So this sentence is about a general habit rather than a specific moment.

How do you pronounce Þeir and the letter þ?

The letter þ is pronounced like the th in thin, not like the th in this.

So:

• þ = voiceless th sound

In Þeir, the beginning sounds like th in thin.

A rough learner-friendly approximation of Þeir drekka kaffi á morgnana would be:

• theyr drek-ka kaffi ow mork-na-na

That is only approximate, but it can help at first.

Could þeir refer to women too?

Not to a group of only women.

• þeir is used for men or a mixed group
• þær is used for an all-female group
• þau is used for neuter plural, including some non-human or mixed reference situations depending on context

So if the group is entirely female, you would normally say:

• Þær drekka kaffi á morgnana.