Breakdown of Hvernig sem veðrið er, kemur hún alltaf í kennslustundina.
Questions & Answers about Hvernig sem veðrið er, kemur hún alltaf í kennslustundina.
What does hvernig sem mean here?
What is sem doing in this sentence?
Why is it veðrið and not just veður?
Veðrið is the definite form of veður, so it means the weather.
That is the normal way to talk about weather in Icelandic, just as English also usually says the weather rather than just weather in this kind of sentence. Grammatically, veðrið is also the subject of er.
What form is veðrið exactly?
It is the nominative singular definite form of the neuter noun veður.
You can break it down like this:
- veður = weather
- veðrið = the weather
The ending -ið is the definite article attached to the noun.
Why is the verb er used here?
Er is the 3rd person singular present tense of vera = to be.
It agrees with veðrið, which is singular. Icelandic present-tense verb forms do not change for gender, so neuter singular still takes er just like masculine or feminine singular subjects would.
Why does the main clause start with kemur hún instead of hún kemur?
This is because Icelandic follows the V2 rule in main clauses: the finite verb normally comes in the second position.
The first position here is already taken by the whole introductory clause:
So the finite verb of the main clause, kemur, must come next:
Hvernig sem veðrið er, kemur hún alltaf í kennslustundina.
Without that fronted clause, the neutral order would be:
Hún kemur alltaf í kennslustundina.
Why is alltaf placed after hún?
What case is kennslustundina?
It is accusative singular definite of the feminine noun kennslustund.
The main forms are:
- kennslustund = a lesson / class
- kennslustundin = the lesson / the class
- kennslustundina = the lesson / the class, in the accusative
- kennslustundinni = in/to the lesson / the class, in the dative definite form when needed
In this sentence, the accusative is required by the preposition í because the meaning is directional.
Why is it í kennslustundina and not í kennslustundinni?
Because í takes different cases depending on meaning:
- accusative for motion toward / into
- dative for location / being in
Here she is coming to the class, so the phrase is directional:
í kennslustundina
Compare:
- Hún kemur í kennslustundina. = She comes to the class.
- Hún er í kennslustundinni. = She is in the class.
Why is kennslustundina definite? English often just says to class.
In Icelandic, the definite form often sounds natural when referring to a specific scheduled lesson or class session.
So í kennslustundina suggests to the class/the lesson in question. English often uses a more article-less expression like to class, but Icelandic does not always match English article usage directly.
Does kemur here mean literal physical coming, or more like shows up / attends?
It can suggest both, depending on context.
Literally, koma means to come. But in a sentence about classes, hún kemur alltaf í kennslustundina very naturally implies she always shows up for class or she always attends the lesson.
So the verb keeps its basic meaning, but the overall sentence can be understood more idiomatically.
Could the sentence also be written with the main clause first?
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