Hún vill ekki flytja hingað fyrr en hún finnur vinnu.

Breakdown of Hún vill ekki flytja hingað fyrr en hún finnur vinnu.

ekki
not
vilja
to want
hún
she
finna
to find
vinna
the job
flytja
to move
fyrr en
until
hingað
here

Questions & Answers about Hún vill ekki flytja hingað fyrr en hún finnur vinnu.

Why is hún repeated in the second half of the sentence?

Because Icelandic normally states the subject again in a new clause.

Here you have two clauses:

  • Hún vill ekki flytja hingað
  • fyrr en hún finnur vinnu

The second clause has its own verb, finnur, so it also needs its own subject, hún.

English does the same in this kind of sentence: She doesn’t want to move here until she finds a job, not until finds a job.

Why is ekki placed after vill?

In Icelandic, ekki usually comes after the finite verb.

So:

  • Hún vill ekki ... = She does not want ...

Here vill is the finite verb, so ekki follows it.

This is very common in Icelandic main clauses:

  • Ég kann ekki þetta. = I do not know this.
  • Hann fer ekki. = He is not going.

An English speaker may expect negation before the main idea, but Icelandic word order is different.

Why is it flytja and not a changed form like flytur?

Because flytja is an infinitive here.

After modal-type verbs like vilja (to want), Icelandic uses the infinitive of the next verb:

  • vil fara = want to go
  • vill flytja = wants to move

So:

  • vill = finite verb, present tense
  • flytja = infinitive, to move

If you said flytur, that would be a finite form meaning moves/is moving, which would not fit after vill in this sentence.

What exactly does flytja mean here?

Here flytja means to move house / relocate.

It is used for moving from one place to another in the sense of changing where you live.

So flytja hingað means move here in the residential sense, not just come here once.

Compare:

  • koma hingað = come here
  • fara hingað = go here
  • flytja hingað = move here / relocate here
Why is it hingað and not hér?

Because hingað expresses motion toward a place, while hér means here as a location.

  • hingað = to here / hereward / сюда-type motion
  • hér = here, in this place

Since the sentence is about moving to this place, Icelandic uses hingað.

Compare:

  • Hún býr hér. = She lives here.
  • Hún vill flytja hingað. = She wants to move here.

This is a very important Icelandic distinction: one form for location, another for direction.

What does fyrr en mean here?

In this sentence, fyrr en means until in the pattern not ... until.

Literally, fyrr means something like earlier/sooner, and en often means than, but together in negative sentences it commonly works like until:

  • ekki ... fyrr en ... = not ... until ...

So:

  • Hún vill ekki flytja hingað fyrr en hún finnur vinnu.
  • She doesn’t want to move here until she finds a job.

You will often see this structure:

  • Ég fer ekki fyrr en á morgun. = I’m not leaving until tomorrow.
  • Hann borðar ekki fyrr en seinna. = He won’t eat until later.
Why is finnur in the present tense if the meaning is about the future?

Because Icelandic often uses the present tense when talking about future events, especially in subordinate clauses.

So hún finnur vinnu literally looks like she finds a job, but in context it means she finds a job in the future.

English does something similar:

  • I’ll wait until she arrives. Not until she will arrive.

Icelandic behaves similarly here:

  • fyrr en hún finnur vinnu = until she finds a job

So the present tense is completely normal.

Why is it vinnu and not vinna?

Because vinnu is the accusative singular form of the noun vinna.

In this sentence, vinna means work / a job, and it is the direct object of finnur (finds). Direct objects often appear in the accusative case.

So:

  • nominative: vinna
  • accusative: vinnu

That is why the sentence has:

  • hún finnur vinnu = she finds a job / finds work

This is also worth noticing because vinna can also be a verb meaning to work. Here it is clearly a noun because of the form vinnu and because it follows finnur.

Is vinna here better understood as work or a job?

It can suggest either, depending on context.

  • finna vinnu often means find work
  • in natural English, this is frequently translated as find a job

So the Icelandic phrase is a bit broader than just one exact English wording. It could mean that she wants employment in general, not necessarily one specific job already identified.

Why doesn’t the verb come second after fyrr en?

Because the second part is a subordinate clause, and subordinate clauses do not follow the same strict main-clause verb-second pattern.

Main clause:

  • Hún vill ekki flytja hingað ...

Subordinate clause:

  • ... fyrr en hún finnur vinnu

After fyrr en, the clause is introduced by a conjunction, so the normal order is subject + verb:

  • hún finnur not
  • finnur hún in this context

This is a common difference between Icelandic main clauses and subordinate clauses.

Could you leave out ekki and still use fyrr en?

You could, but the meaning would change.

  • Hún vill ekki flytja hingað fyrr en hún finnur vinnu.
    = She doesn’t want to move here until she finds a job.

Without ekki:

  • Hún vill flytja hingað fyrr en hún finnur vinnu.

That would no longer mean not until. It would sound more like earlier than / before she finds a job, which is a different idea and may be odd depending on context.

So in this sentence, ekki ... fyrr en ... is the key pattern.

Why is it vill and not vil?

Vill is the 3rd person singular present form of vilja (to want).

A few present-tense forms are:

  • ég vil = I want
  • þú vilt = you want
  • hún/hann vill = she/he wants

So because the subject is hún, the correct form is vill.

This is an irregular verb, so it is worth memorizing separately.

Would þangað ever be possible instead of hingað?

Yes, but it would mean something different.

  • hingað = to here, toward the speaker’s location
  • þangað = to there, toward some other place

So if the speaker is talking about the place where they are now, hingað is right:

  • move here

If the speaker were talking about another place not identified as here, then þangað might be used:

  • move there

So hingað tells you something about the speaker’s perspective as well as direction.

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