Ef þetta er spurning, þarf setningin spurningarmerki en ekki punkt.

Ef means if. It introduces a conditional subordinate clause, just like English if does.

In this sentence, Ef þetta er spurning means If this is a question.

A useful pattern to remember is:

• Ef + clause, main clause
• Ef ég kem, hringi ég. = If I come, I call / I’ll call.

So here, everything before the comma is the if-clause, and everything after it is the main statement.

This is because of Icelandic V2 word order in main clauses.

In Icelandic, the finite verb usually comes in the second position of the main clause. When the sentence begins with something other than the subject, such as the subordinate clause Ef þetta er spurning, that whole clause takes the first slot. Then the verb comes next:

• Ef þetta er spurning, þarf setningin ...

So the order is:

1. Ef þetta er spurning = first element
2. þarf = finite verb
3. setningin = subject

If you wrote the main clause by itself, it would normally be:

• Setningin þarf spurningarmerki ...

This is a very common Icelandic pattern and often feels unusual to English speakers at first.

Þarf is the present tense singular form of the verb að þurfa, meaning to need.

In this sentence, the subject is setningin = the sentence, so þarf is singular because the subject is singular.

• setningin þarf = the sentence needs

Compare:

• Setningin þarf = The sentence needs
• Setningarnar þurfa = The sentences need

So the thing doing the needing is setningin.

The ending -in is the attached definite article, so setningin means the sentence.

• setning = a sentence
• setningin = the sentence

Icelandic often adds the directly onto the noun instead of using a separate word like English does.

Here, the sentence is talking about the sentence in a general instructional sense, so the definite form is natural.

Because after the verb að vera (to be), the predicate noun is normally in the nominative.

So:

• þetta er spurning = this is a question

Here:

• spurning is nominative singular
• spurningu would be accusative singular, which would be wrong here

This is similar to how Icelandic often treats the noun after to be as matching the basic subject-type form rather than an object form.

Þetta is the neuter singular form of this. It can mean this or this thing/this matter, depending on context.

In Ef þetta er spurning, it means if this is a question.

English speakers often want a one-to-one match, but Icelandic þetta is very flexible and often works like:

• this
• this thing
• this here

It is extremely common in everyday Icelandic.

They are different nouns with different grammatical patterns.

spurningarmerki

This means question mark. It is a neuter noun, and in the singular its nominative and accusative forms are the same:

• spurningarmerki = nominative singular
• spurningarmerki = accusative singular

punktur

This noun means period/full stop/dot/point, depending on context. Here it means period or full stop. It is a masculine noun, and the accusative singular drops the -ur:

• punktur = nominative singular
• punkt = accusative singular

So punkt appears here because it is functioning as the object.

They are in the accusative, because they are the things the sentence needs after the verb að þurfa.

So:

• setningin þarf spurningarmerki
• ekki punkt

The verb að þurfa usually takes an accusative object.

The forms look different because of the nouns’ declensions:

• spurningarmerki stays the same in nominative and accusative singular
• punktur changes to punkt in the accusative singular

Here en ekki means but not.

So:

• spurningarmerki en ekki punkt = a question mark, but not a period

It is contrasting two possibilities:

• the correct thing: spurningarmerki
• the incorrect thing: punkt

In this kind of sentence, en ekki is very common when correcting or contrasting:

• kaffi en ekki te = coffee, not tea
• í dag en ekki á morgun = today, not tomorrow

Yes. Spurningarmerki is a compound noun, and Icelandic uses compounds constantly.

It is made from:

• spurning = question
• merki = mark, sign

The first part appears as spurningar-, which comes from the genitive form spurningar. This is very common in Icelandic compounds.

So literally it is something like:

• question’s mark
• more naturally: question mark

Many Icelandic words are built this way, so learning to spot compounds is very helpful.

Yes. In this context, punktur means the punctuation mark that English speakers call:

• period in American English
• full stop in British English

The accusative form here is punkt.

Be aware that punktur can also mean dot, point, or spot in other contexts, so the exact English translation depends on what is being talked about.

Yes. You could rearrange it and still keep the same basic meaning:

• Setningin þarf spurningarmerki en ekki punkt ef þetta er spurning.

That puts the main clause first and the if-clause second.

When the main clause comes first, the normal subject-verb order appears:

• Setningin þarf ...

When the ef-clause comes first, the verb comes before the subject in the main clause:

• Ef þetta er spurning, þarf setningin ...

Both patterns are useful, and seeing both helps you get used to Icelandic word order.