Við ætlum að setja nýja borðið saman í kvöld.

Ætla is the infinitive, or dictionary form, meaning to intend / to plan / to be going to.

Ætlum is the present-tense form used with við (we). So:

• ég ætla = I intend / I’m going to
• við ætlum = we intend / we’re going to

Icelandic verbs change form depending on the subject.

This is a very common Icelandic pattern.

ætla að + verb means something like:

• intend to
• plan to
• be going to

So við ætlum að setja... means we are going to put/assemble... or we plan to put/assemble...

It is one of the main ways Icelandic talks about future plans.

After ætla, Icelandic normally uses að before the next verb in the infinitive.

So:

• ætla að fara = intend to go
• ætla að borða = intend to eat
• ætla að setja = intend to put / assemble

Here, að works like the infinitive marker to in English, although it does not always match English perfectly word-for-word.

Setja saman is a very common expression meaning put together or assemble.

On its own, setja often means put, place, or set.
But with saman, it often means assemble, especially with furniture or anything that comes in parts.

So in this sentence, setja nýja borðið saman means assemble the new table, not just physically place a table somewhere.

In Icelandic, words like saman can behave a bit like particles in English phrasal verbs.

Compare English:

• put the table together

The word together comes after the object. Icelandic often does something very similar:

• setja nýja borðið saman

So even though setja saman is a unit in meaning, the object can come between the two parts.

Icelandic usually adds the definite article the to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word.

So:

• borð = table
• borðið = the table

This is very normal in Icelandic. The -ið here is the attached definite article for this neuter noun.

This is because the noun is definite: borðið = the table.

In Icelandic, adjectives change form depending on whether the noun is:

• indefinite: nýtt borð = a new table
• definite: nýja borðið = the new table

So nýja is the weak adjective form used with a definite noun.

Yes. Borðið is the direct object of setja, so it is in the accusative.

However, borð is a neuter noun, and for many neuter nouns the nominative and accusative forms are identical in the singular.

So even though the case is accusative here, the form still looks like borðið.

Í kvöld means tonight.

It is a very common time expression in Icelandic. Even though í often means in, the whole phrase í kvöld is best learned as a set expression meaning tonight.

Similar expressions include:

• í dag = today
• í morgun = this morning / in the morning

So here í kvöld simply tells you when the action will happen.

Yes, to some extent. Icelandic word order is more flexible than English, although some versions sound more neutral than others.

The given sentence is a very natural, neutral way to say it:

• Við ætlum að setja nýja borðið saman í kvöld.

If you want to emphasize tonight, you could also say:

• Í kvöld ætlum við að setja nýja borðið saman.

That puts the time expression first for emphasis.

Not a special future tense in the way English sometimes seems to. Icelandic often expresses future meaning with present-tense forms plus context or with verbs like ætla.

So við ætlum að... is a very natural way to express a future plan:

• We are going to...
• We intend to...
• We plan to...

So the future idea comes from ætlum að, not from a separate future-tense verb form.