Þau standa fyrir framan húsið.

They are standing in front of the house.

Breakdown of Þau standa fyrir framan húsið.

• húsið: the house
• fyrir framan: in front of
• þau: they
• standa: to be written

Questions & Answers about Þau standa fyrir framan húsið.

Why is the subject þau and not þeir or þær?

Þau is the neuter plural form of they.

In Icelandic, third-person plural pronouns reflect grammatical gender:

• þeir = they (masculine)
• þær = they (feminine)
• þau = they (neuter)

For people, þau is commonly used for:

• a mixed-gender group
• children
• a group where the gender is not being emphasized

So if the people standing there are, for example, a boy and a girl, þau is the natural choice.

What form is standa here?

Here, standa is the present tense plural form of the verb standa, meaning to stand.

With a plural subject like þau, you use standa:

• hann/hún/það stendur = he/she/it stands, is standing
• þau standa = they stand, are standing

So the verb agrees with the plural subject.

Does þau standa mean they stand or they are standing?

It can mean both, depending on context.

Icelandic often uses the simple present where English might use either:

• they stand
• they are standing

So þau standa can naturally be understood as they are standing in this sentence.

English uses the progressive are standing more often, but Icelandic does not need a separate form here.

Should I learn fyrir framan as one expression?

Yes. Fyrir framan is best learned as a fixed expression meaning in front of.

Even though it is made of two words, it functions together as one unit of meaning.

That is helpful because:

• fyrir on its own can mean several different things
• framan also appears in other expressions
• but fyrir framan specifically means in front of

So for learners, it is much easier to memorize it as a chunk.

What case is húsið in, and why?

Here húsið is best understood as accusative singular after fyrir framan.

The important thing to know is that the noun after fyrir framan is commonly treated as being in the accusative.

With hús, that is a little hard to see because this noun is neuter, and the nominative and accusative singular look the same:

• hús = house
• húsið = the house

So the form does not change visibly here.

A clearer example with a masculine noun would be:

• fyrir framan bílinn = in front of the car

There the accusative is easier to spot.

Why does húsið end in -ið?

The ending -ið is the definite article, attached to the end of the noun.

So:

• hús = house
• húsið = the house

Unlike English, Icelandic usually does not put a separate word before the noun for the. Instead, the definiteness is often added as an ending.

That means húsið is one word, but it corresponds to two words in English: the house.

How do you pronounce Þau?

A useful English approximation is:

• þ sounds like th in thin
• au sounds roughly like oy in boy

So þau is approximately thoy.

That is only an approximation, but it is a good starting point for an English speaker.

How would I roughly pronounce the whole sentence?

A rough English-style pronunciation guide would be:

THOY stan-da FI-rihr FRA-man HOO-sith

Very approximate word by word:

• Þau ≈ thoy
• standa ≈ STAN-da
• fyrir ≈ FI-rihr
• framan ≈ FRA-man
• húsið ≈ HOO-sith

A couple of notes:

• þ is like th in thin
• ð in Icelandic is a soft th sound, though in some positions it can be weaker than English speakers expect
• Icelandic vowels are not exactly the same as English vowels, so these spellings are only guides

Is the word order the same as in English?

In this sentence, yes: it is fairly close to English word order.

The structure is:

• Þau = subject
• standa = verb
• fyrir framan húsið = prepositional phrase

So it follows a straightforward pattern:

Subject + Verb + Location

That said, Icelandic word order is more flexible than English. For emphasis, another element can come first, but the finite verb still tends to stay in the second position:

• Fyrir framan húsið standa þau.

That version is more marked or stylistic, while Þau standa fyrir framan húsið is the neutral order.

What are the dictionary forms of the important words in this sentence?

The main dictionary forms are:

• þau → pronoun form of það in the plural system
• standa → infinitive to stand
• fyrir framan → fixed expression in front of
• hús → house

This is useful because not every word appears in a sentence exactly the way you would look it up:

• húsið is based on hús
• standa here is a finite verb form, but it also happens to match the infinitive spelling