Breakdown of Ef afhendingin kemur of seint í ágúst, þarf sendandinn að hringja aftur.
aftur
again
í
in
þurfa
to need
seint
late
Questions & Answers about Ef afhendingin kemur of seint í ágúst, þarf sendandinn að hringja aftur.
Why is þarf placed before sendandinn in the second part of the sentence?
Because Icelandic follows a verb-second pattern in main clauses.
When the sentence starts with the subordinate clause Ef afhendingin kemur of seint í ágúst, that whole clause takes the first slot. In the main clause, the finite verb must then come second, so you get:
þarf sendandinn að hringja aftur
If you put the main clause first by itself, the more basic order would be:
Sendandinn þarf að hringja aftur.
So this is not random inversion; it is a normal Icelandic word-order rule.
Why are afhendingin and sendandinn written with -in and -inn at the end?
Those endings are the suffixed definite article in Icelandic.
- afhending = delivery
afhendingin = the delivery
- sendandi = sender
- sendandinn = the sender
Unlike English, Icelandic usually puts the onto the end of the noun rather than using a separate word.
Why are kemur and þarf in the present tense if the sentence is talking about a future situation?