Ég er nýbúin að sjá tunglið út um gluggann.

Vera nýbúin/nýbúinn að + infinitive means to have just done something or to be newly finished with doing something.

So:

• Ég er nýbúin að sjá... = I have just seen...

It is a very common Icelandic way to talk about something that happened very recently.

Because nýbúinn is an adjective/participle that agrees with the subject in gender and number.

Here the subject is ég (I), and the form nýbúin tells us the speaker is female.

Common forms are:

• ég er nýbúinn að... = a male speaker
• ég er nýbúin að... = a female speaker
• við erum nýbúin að... = plural, mixed/feminine-type form depending on context
• við erum nýbúnir að... = plural masculine/mixed group

So this sentence specifically sounds like it is being said by a woman.

Because Icelandic often expresses have just done with the structure:

• vera
  • nýbúinn/nýbúin
    • að
      • infinitive

Literally, it is something like:

• I am newly finished from doing X

But in natural English, you usually translate it as:

• I have just done X

So although English uses have, Icelandic uses be in this pattern.

Here að introduces the infinitive sjá (to see).

It is part of the fixed construction:

• vera nýbúinn að gera eitthvað = to have just done something

So you should learn nýbúinn að as a chunk.

Compare:

• Ég er nýbúin að borða. = I’ve just eaten.
• Hann er nýbúinn að fara. = He has just left.

Because after nýbúin að, Icelandic uses the infinitive form of the verb.

So:

• að sjá = to see

This is normal in this construction:

• nýbúin að sjá
• nýbúin að lesa
• nýbúin að koma

Tunglið means the moon.

• tungl = moon / a moon
• tunglið = the moon

The ending -ið is the neuter singular definite article attached to the noun.

Since the sentence is talking about a specific moon that both speaker and listener understand, Icelandic uses the definite form.

Good question. Tungl is a neuter noun, and in the singular, the nominative and accusative forms are the same.

So:

• nominative: tunglið
• accusative: tunglið

Even though it is the direct object of sjá, the form does not visibly change.

That is very common with many neuter nouns in Icelandic.

Because gluggi (window) is governed by the preposition um, which takes the accusative.

Here you have:

• út um gluggann

The noun is therefore in the accusative singular definite form:

• nominative: glugginn = the window
• accusative: gluggann = the window

So gluggann is there because of the preposition, not because it is the main object of the sentence.

It means out through the window or more naturally in English here, out of the window.

Breakdown:

• út = out
• um = through / via / out of, depending on context
• gluggann = the window

With verbs of seeing or looking, this phrase describes the direction/path of vision:

• sjá út um gluggann = see out through the window / see out of the window

In natural English, you would often just say through the window or out the window.

Not exactly. The verb here is sjá, which means see, not look at.

So the sentence means that the speaker saw the moon.

If you wanted look at, Icelandic would usually use horfa á:

• Ég er nýbúin að horfa á tunglið út um gluggann.

That would mean something more like I’ve just been looking at the moon out the window.

So sjá is about the act/result of seeing, not the deliberate action of looking.

A man would say:

• Ég er nýbúinn að sjá tunglið út um gluggann.

The only change is:

• nýbúin → nýbúinn

Everything else stays the same.

It is closer to I’ve just seen the moon / I have just seen the moon, because it emphasizes that the event happened very recently.

In everyday English, though, many people would simply say:

• I just saw the moon through the window.

So when translating, both can work depending on the style of English you want.

Yes, but the meaning would be slightly different.

For example:

• Ég sá tunglið út um gluggann. = I saw the moon through the window.

That just states the event.

But:

• Ég er nýbúin að sjá tunglið út um gluggann.

adds the idea that it happened a moment ago.

So the nýbúin að structure is more specific and more immediate.

Yes. Nýr/ný/nýtt means new, and nýbúinn has the sense of being newly finished with something.

So the expression has a fairly transparent literal idea underneath it, even though in practice you should learn it as the idiomatic pattern:

• vera nýbúinn að + infinitive = to have just done

Yes, that is a good idea.

Learners often benefit from memorizing it as a phrase:

• út um gluggann = out the window / through the window
• inn um dyrnar = in through the door

Icelandic often uses these small directional phrases very naturally, and learning them as chunks makes them easier to use correctly.

A quick breakdown:

• Ég = I
• er = am
• nýbúin = just finished / having just done (female speaker form)
• að = infinitive marker here
• sjá = see
• tunglið = the moon
• út um gluggann = out through the window

So the structure is:

• Subject + vera + nýbúinn/nýbúin + að + infinitive + object + prepositional phrase