Breakdown of Ég verð fegin þegar ég er komin heim og þessi vika er búin.
Questions & Answers about Ég verð fegin þegar ég er komin heim og þessi vika er búin.
Why is it fegin and not feginn?
Because fegin is the feminine singular form.
The sentence tells you that the speaker is female:
- Ég verð fegin = I will be glad / relieved, said by a woman
- A man would say Ég verð feginn
This kind of agreement is very common in Icelandic. Adjectives and participle-like forms often agree with the person or noun they describe in gender, number, and case.
What does verð mean here?
Verð is the 1st person singular present of verða, which often means become.
So:
- Ég verð fegin literally means I become glad
- In natural English, that is usually I’ll be glad or I’ll be relieved
Even though the verb is formally present tense, this sentence has a future meaning because it is talking about how the speaker will feel once certain things have happened.
Why does þegar mean when here? I thought þegar could mean already.
Yes, þegar can mean two different things:
- þegar = when as a conjunction
- þegar = already as an adverb
In this sentence, it is clearly the conjunction when, because it introduces a clause:
- þegar ég er komin heim ... = when I have gotten home ...
So here þegar is not already.
Why are er komin and er búin in the present tense if the meaning is future?
This is very normal in Icelandic.
After time words like þegar = when, Icelandic often uses present tense forms to talk about the future, especially when English would say something like:
- when I get home
- when the week is over
So:
- þegar ég er komin heim = when I have gotten home / when I’m home
- þegar þessi vika er búin = when this week is over
The main clause carries the future feeling:
- Ég verð fegin ... = I’ll be glad ...
This is similar to English, which also says when I get home, not when I will get home.
What exactly does ég er komin heim mean?
It is a very common Icelandic way to express having arrived somewhere, especially with verbs of motion.
- koma = come
- ég er komin heim literally looks like I am come home
- natural English: I’ve gotten home, I’ve arrived home, or simply I’m home now
The important idea is completed movement with a resulting state:
- the speaker has arrived
- and is now at home
The form komin agrees with the female speaker. A male speaker would say kominn.
Why is it heim and not heima?
Because Icelandic makes an important distinction:
- heim = homeward / to home, showing movement toward home
- heima = at home, showing location
Since the sentence is about getting home, Icelandic uses heim:
- ég er komin heim = I have gotten home
If you were just describing location, you would use heima:
- Ég er heima = I am at home
This is a very important pair to learn.
What does búin mean in þessi vika er búin?
Here búin means finished, over, or done.
So:
- þessi vika er búin = this week is over / this week is finished
The word agrees with vika, which is a feminine singular noun, so the form is búin.
Compare:
- dagurinn er búinn = the day is over
- árið er búið = the year is over
- vikan er búin = the week is over
So the form changes depending on the noun it describes.
Is this the same búin as in búin að + infinitive?
It is closely related, but the construction is different.
You may have seen:
- Ég er búin að lesa bókina = I have finished reading the book
That pattern is:
- vera búinn/búin/búið að + infinitive
But in your sentence, there is no infinitive after it:
- þessi vika er búin
Here it simply means is over / is finished.
So the same word family is involved, but the grammar is not exactly the same.
Why is it þessi vika and not some other case like þessa viku?
Because þessi vika is the subject of the clause:
- þessi vika er búin = this week is over
Subjects are normally in the nominative case, so you get:
- þessi = nominative feminine singular
- vika = nominative feminine singular
If it were an object, you might see a different case, such as þessa viku.
Does og þessi vika er búin still belong to the þegar clause?
Yes.
The structure is:
- Ég verð fegin = main clause
- þegar ég er komin heim og þessi vika er búin = time clause
So the meaning is:
- I’ll be glad when both of these are true:
- I have gotten home
- this week is over
You can think of it as shorthand for:
- þegar ég er komin heim og þegar þessi vika er búin
The second þegar is simply left out because it is understood.
If a man said this sentence, what would change?
Only the parts that refer to the speaker would change.
A man would say:
Ég verð feginn þegar ég er kominn heim og þessi vika er búin.
Changes:
- fegin → feginn
- komin → kominn
But búin does not change, because it describes vika, and vika is still feminine.
So the agreement works like this:
- words about I change with the speaker’s gender
- words about week change with the noun vika
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