Word
Lyfjafræðingurinn spurði hvort ég tæki lyfin eftir mat.
Meaning
The pharmacist asked whether I take the medicines after food.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Lyfjafræðingurinn spurði hvort ég tæki lyfin eftir mat.
ég
I
maturinn
the food
spyrja
to ask
taka
to take
Questions & Answers about Lyfjafræðingurinn spurði hvort ég tæki lyfin eftir mat.
What does hvort mean here?
Hvort introduces an indirect yes/no question, so here it means whether or if.
In other words, the pharmacist did not ask a wh-word question like when or why. They asked something like:
- Do you take the medicine after food?
When that is reported indirectly in Icelandic, hvort is a very common word to use.
Why does the sentence use tæki instead of tek?
Because this is reported speech / an indirect question after a past verb: spurði = asked.
In Icelandic, after a verb like spurði, the following clause often uses the subjunctive, especially in more careful or standard language. So:
- direct question: Tekurðu lyfin eftir mat?
- indirect report: Hann spurði hvort ég tæki lyfin eftir mat.
So tæki does not mean would take here. It is the form used because the question is being reported indirectly.
What form of the verb is tæki?