Hún spurði hvaðan ég væri að koma þegar ég kom seint.

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Breakdown of Hún spurði hvaðan ég væri að koma þegar ég kom seint.

• vera: to be
• hún: she
• spyrja: to ask

Questions & Answers about Hún spurði hvaðan ég væri að koma þegar ég kom seint.

Why is it hvaðan and not hvar?

Hvaðan means from where, while hvar means where.

So:

• hvaðan ég væri að koma = where I was coming from
• hvar ég væri = where I was

Because the sentence is asking about the origin of the movement, Icelandic uses hvaðan.

Why is it væri instead of var?

Væri is the past subjunctive of vera (to be).

In Icelandic, indirect questions and reported speech often use the subjunctive, especially after verbs like spyrja (to ask), segja (to say), and similar verbs.

So:

• Hún spurði: Hvaðan ert þú að koma? = direct question: She asked: Where are you coming from?
• Hún spurði hvaðan ég væri að koma. = indirect question: She asked where I was coming from.

A learner coming from English often expects an indicative form here, but Icelandic commonly prefers the subjunctive in this kind of subordinate clause.

What does að koma mean here? Why is there an að before the verb?