Við tókum sitthvoran stólinn út á svalirnar og sátum þar í sólinni.

It means one each, one apiece, or each their own.

So Við tókum sitthvoran stólinn means that each person took one chair, rather than the group taking the chairs as one set. The idea is distributive: one chair per person.

Because Icelandic is focusing on what each individual took.

With sitthvoran stólinn, the structure is basically one chair each, so the noun stays singular. Even though there were several chairs in total, each person took only one, and that is what the grammar reflects.

Because it has to agree with stólinn in gender, number, and case.

• stóll is masculine
• here it is singular
• it is the direct object of tókum, so it is in the accusative case

Therefore sitthvor appears in the masculine singular accusative form: sitthvoran.

Because stóllinn is the nominative form, but after tókum you need the accusative.

The forms are:

• nominative: stóllinn = the chair
• accusative: stólinn = the chair as a direct object

So Við tókum stólinn is correct because the chair is the thing being taken.

Using stólinn suggests specific chairs, not just any chairs.

So sitthvoran stólinn gives the sense of the respective chair or a chair each from the chairs already known in the situation. In natural English, this nuance is often not translated very directly, and we might simply say we each took a chair.

It means out onto the balcony or out to the balcony.

It has two parts:

• út = out
• á svalirnar = onto/to the balcony

Icelandic often combines a directional adverb like út with a prepositional phrase to describe movement very clearly.

Because svalir is normally a plural noun in Icelandic.

So even when English uses singular balcony, Icelandic says svalir. That means:

• svalirnar = the balcony / literally the balconies
• á svalirnar = onto the balcony
• á svölunum = on the balcony

This is just a feature of the word that learners have to get used to.

Because there is movement toward the balcony.

With á, Icelandic often uses:

• accusative for motion or destination
• dative for location

So:

• út á svalirnar = out onto the balcony
• við sátum á svölunum = we sat on the balcony

In this sentence, the chairs are being moved there, so accusative svalirnar is used.

Sátum is the 1st person plural past tense of sitja, meaning to sit.

So:

• ég sat = I sat
• við sátum = we sat

This verb is irregular, so the form changes quite a bit from the infinitive sitja.

Because this describes location, not movement.

With í, Icelandic commonly uses:

• accusative for motion into something
• dative for being in something

Here they are already sitting there, so í sólinni means in the sun or in the sunshine.

It is a static situation, so the dative form sólinni is the right one.

Þar means there.

It refers back to the place just mentioned, namely the balcony. So og sátum þar í sólinni means and sat there in the sun.

English might sometimes leave there out, but Icelandic often uses it naturally to point back to the location.