Ég er vanur að lesa í rúminu á kvöldin.

I am used to reading in bed in the evenings.

Breakdown of Ég er vanur að lesa í rúminu á kvöldin.

• ég: I
• vera: to be
• lesa: to read
• kvöldið: the evening

Questions & Answers about Ég er vanur að lesa í rúminu á kvöldin.

What does vanur mean here?

Here vanur means used to or accustomed to.

So Ég er vanur að lesa... literally means something like:

• I am used to reading...
• or more naturally in some contexts, I usually read...

A useful pattern is:

• vera vanur að + infinitive = to be used to doing something

So:

• Ég er vanur að lesa = I am used to reading

This does not mean the English past-habit I used to read. For that, Icelandic would normally use a different structure.

Why is it er vanur and not a single verb meaning am used to?

Because Icelandic expresses this idea with:

• the verb vera = to be
• plus the adjective vanur = accustomed / used to

So the structure is:

• Ég er vanur ... = I am used to ...

This is very common in Icelandic: ideas that English may express with one fixed phrase are often built with vera + adjective.

Why is there an að before lesa?