Við ætlum að gista eina nótt á tjaldstæðinu og fara heim á sunnudag.

Ætla is a very common verb meaning to intend, to plan, or to be going to.

Here, við ætlum að ... means we intend to ... / we are going to ....

• við = we
• ætlum = are intending / are going to
  (1st person plural of ætla)
• að = the infinitive marker to

So við ætlum að gista ... og fara ... means we are going to stay overnight ... and go ...

This is a standard Icelandic pattern:

• ég ætla að fara = I’m going to go
• við ætlum að borða = we’re going to eat

Because both gista and fara are controlled by the same verb ætlum.

So:

• við ætlum að gista ... og fara ...

means:

• we intend to stay overnight ... and go ...

In Icelandic, when two infinitives are joined by og after the same governing verb, you usually do not repeat að.

So this is completely natural:

• Ég ætla að borða og sofa. = I’m going to eat and sleep.

You could think of it as:

• we intend [to stay overnight] and [to go home]

Gista means to stay the night, to spend the night, or to sleep somewhere overnight.

It is often used when talking about accommodation, travel, camping, or visiting somewhere for one night or more.

Examples:

• Við gistum á hóteli. = We are staying at a hotel.
• Þau gistu hjá vinum. = They stayed overnight with friends.

So að gista eina nótt means to stay one night or more naturally to spend one night there.

Because nótt is feminine, and here it is in the accusative case.

The phrase gista eina nótt uses the accusative to express duration or extent of time: for one night.

Forms of einn with a feminine singular noun:

• nominative: ein nótt = one night
• accusative: eina nótt

So in this sentence:

• eina nótt = one night as the duration of the stay

This kind of accusative time expression is very common in Icelandic.

Yes, it has some irregular forms, so learners often notice it.

Basic singular forms:

• nominative: nótt = night
• accusative: nótt
• dative: nótt
• genitive: nætur

With the adjective/number ein/eina, you see:

• ein nótt = one night
• eina nótt = one night (accusative)

Even if the noun itself looks the same in nominative and accusative, the feminine form of one changes and shows the case clearly.

Because á can take either the dative or the accusative, depending on meaning.

A very useful rule is:

• location = usually dative
• movement toward a destination = usually accusative

Here, the meaning is at the campsite, not to the campsite, so Icelandic uses the dative:

• á tjaldstæðinu = at the campsite

Compare:

• Við erum á tjaldstæðinu. = We are at the campsite.
• Við förum á tjaldstæðið. = We go to the campsite.

So gista á tjaldstæðinu means stay overnight at the campsite.

That ending includes the definite article and the dative singular ending.

The base noun is:

• tjaldstæði = campsite / camping site

In Icelandic, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun rather than written as a separate word like English the.

So:

• tjaldstæði = a campsite
• tjaldstæðið = the campsite
• á tjaldstæðinu = at the campsite
  (dative singular definite)

This is one of the key things to get used to in Icelandic: the is usually a suffix, not a separate word.

It literally relates to a place for tents:

• tjald = tent
• stæði = place, spot, standing place

So tjaldstæði is a camping site / campsite.

In actual usage, it usually means an official place where people camp, not just any random place where a tent happens to be.

No repetition is needed. Icelandic, like English, does not need to repeat the subject when two verbs share the same subject.

So:

• Við ætlum að gista ... og fara heim ...

naturally means:

• We are going to stay overnight ... and go home ...

The subject við applies to both infinitives:

• gista
• fara

This is completely normal.

Heim means homeward / home.

In the phrase fara heim, it works like an adverb of direction rather than a regular noun phrase. That is why there is no article.

• fara heim = go home

This is similar to English, where we say go home, not go to the home.

Compare:

• Ég fer heim. = I’m going home.
• Þau komu heim seint. = They came home late.

So heim here is a fixed, very common directional word.

Icelandic often uses á with days of the week to mean on a certain day.

So:

• á sunnudag = on Sunday

Other examples:

• á mánudag = on Monday
• á föstudag = on Friday

This is a standard time expression. English uses on, and Icelandic uses á here.

It usually means on Sunday, and the exact interpretation depends on context.

Depending on the situation, it can mean:

• the upcoming Sunday
• a particular Sunday already understood in context
• Sunday as the day when the action happens

In this sentence, most likely it means on Sunday as part of the travel plan:

• We’re going to stay one night at the campsite and go home on Sunday.

If a speaker wanted to be more specific, Icelandic has other ways to do that, but á sunnudag by itself is very normal.

Yes. This is very normal Icelandic word order.

The sentence is:

• Við ætlum að gista eina nótt á tjaldstæðinu og fara heim á sunnudag.

Structure:

• Við = subject
• ætlum = finite verb
• að gista ... og fara ... = infinitive phrase
• time and place expressions follow naturally

This is straightforward main-clause word order. Icelandic is famous for verb-second word order, and here the subject comes first, so the finite verb naturally comes second:

• Við
  • ætlum

If another element came first, the verb would still normally stay in second position:

• Á sunnudag ætlum við að fara heim. = On Sunday we intend to go home.

Yes. Even if the meaning is already clear, learners often want to know what sounds natural in English.

A very natural English translation would be:

• We’re going to stay one night at the campsite and go home on Sunday.

Other natural possibilities:

• We plan to spend one night at the campsite and go home on Sunday.
• We’re going to camp there for one night and head home on Sunday.

The exact best translation depends on context, but grammatically the Icelandic sentence is very straightforward.