Ég þarf að kaupa sólkrem áður en við förum á ströndina.

In this sentence, að is the infinitive marker, like English to in to buy.

• þarf = need
• að kaupa = to buy

So Ég þarf að kaupa... literally means I need to buy...

A useful point: Icelandic often uses að before an infinitive after certain verbs, and þurfa is one of them.

Þarf is the correct 1st person singular present form of the verb þurfa (to need).

The present-tense forms are:

• ég þarf = I need
• þú þarft = you need
• hann/hún/það þarf = he/she/it needs
• við þurfum = we need
• þið þurfið = you all need
• þeir/þær/þau þurfa = they need

So Ég þarf is simply the normal form for I need.

Because it depends on þarf. After þarf að, the next verb stays in the infinitive:

• Ég þarf að kaupa = I need to buy
• Ég þarf að fara = I need to go
• Ég þarf að lesa = I need to read

Only the first verb is conjugated here (þarf); the second verb remains in the infinitive (kaupa).

Sólkrem means sunscreen or sun cream.

It is a compound noun:

• sól = sun
• krem = cream

So literally it is something like sun-cream.

It is a neuter noun. In this sentence, it appears without the definite article, so it means sunscreen in a general sense, not the sunscreen.

Icelandic often does not use an indefinite article the way English uses a/an.

So:

• kaupa sólkrem = buy sunscreen / buy a sunscreen

In natural English, buy sunscreen sounds better than buy a sunscreen, and Icelandic matches that kind of general, uncountable usage nicely here.

If you wanted the sunscreen, Icelandic would usually mark definiteness on the noun itself.

Áður en means before when it introduces a clause.

In this sentence:

• áður en við förum á ströndina = before we go to the beach

A helpful distinction:

• áður en
  • clause = before
    • subject + verb
      
      • áður en við förum = before we go
• áður by itself can mean earlier / before

So here en is needed because a full clause follows it.

Because við förum is a full conjugated clause: we go.

• við förum = we go
• að fara = to go

After áður en, Icelandic uses a normal clause with a subject and a finite verb:

• áður en við förum = before we go

So förum is the correct 1st person plural present form of fara.

This is very normal in Icelandic. A present-tense verb can refer to the future when the context makes that clear.

So:

• áður en við förum á ströndina literally looks like before we go to the beach
• but in context it means before we go to the beach in the future

English does something similar in clauses after before, when, after, etc.:

• I need to buy sunscreen before we go to the beach

You do not normally say before we will go. Icelandic works similarly here.

This is a very important case distinction.

With á, Icelandic often uses:

• accusative for motion to/onto
• dative for location on/at

Here, the meaning is movement toward the beach:

• fara á ströndina = go to the beach

So ströndina is accusative singular definite.

Compare:

• Við förum á ströndina. = We go to the beach.
• Við erum á ströndinni. = We are at the beach.

That difference, -na vs -nni, is very common and worth learning early.

Because strönd (beach) is a feminine noun, and here it is:

• singular
• definite
• accusative

The basic noun is:

• strönd = beach

In this sentence it becomes:

• ströndina = the beach (accusative singular)

So the ending shows grammar information: case, number, and definiteness.

Normally, Icelandic does not drop subject pronouns the way some languages do.

So you usually say:

• við förum = we go

not just

• förum on its own

Sometimes the subject can be omitted in special contexts, especially in informal speech or commands/suggestions, but in a normal full sentence like this, við is expected.

You add ekki (not), usually after the finite verb:

• Ég þarf ekki að kaupa sólkrem áður en við förum á ströndina.
• I don’t need to buy sunscreen before we go to the beach.

Notice that ekki comes after þarf, the conjugated verb.

The structure is:

• Ég = subject
• þarf = finite verb
• að kaupa sólkrem = infinitive phrase
• áður en við förum á ströndina = subordinate clause

So the pattern is roughly:

• Subject + finite verb + infinitive phrase + subordinate clause

That gives:

• Ég þarf að kaupa sólkrem áður en við förum á ströndina.

This is very natural Icelandic word order.

A rough guide:

• Ég sounds approximately like yeg with a y-like start
• þ in þarf is like th in thin
• ö in förum is somewhat like the vowel in French peur or German hören, not exactly like an English vowel

A rough English-style approximation of the full sentence is:

• Yeg tharv ath koy-pa soul-krem ow-thur en vith fur-um ow stronth-ih-na

That is only approximate, but it can help at first. The biggest things to remember are:

• þ = unvoiced th
• ð (not in this sentence except in áður) is usually a voiced th, like in this
• á, é, ö do not sound like their plain English letter names