Ég leita að andheitinu í orðabókinni.

I

Breakdown of Ég leita að andheitinu í orðabókinni.

• í: in
• leita að: to look for
• orðabókin: the dictionary

Questions & Answers about Ég leita að andheitinu í orðabókinni.

Why is it leita að and not just leita?

For the meaning look for / search for, Icelandic usually uses the pattern leita að + dative. So it is helpful to learn leita að as a chunk.

In this sentence:

• leita = look/search
• að = the preposition that goes with this verb in this meaning

So the structure is not exactly copied from English. English says look for, while Icelandic says leita að.

Is the að here the same að used before an infinitive, like að fara?

No. It is the same word in form, but not the same function.

Here, að is a preposition meaning something like for / after in the expression leita að.

In að fara, að is an infinitive marker, closer to English to in to go.

So in this sentence, að is not introducing another verb. It belongs with leita.

Why does andheitinu end in -inu?