Ef afborgunin verður of há, þurfum við að breyta áætluninni.

If the installment becomes too high, we need to change the plan.

Breakdown of Ef afborgunin verður of há, þurfum við að breyta áætluninni.

• við: we
• þurfa: to need
• verða: to become
• hár: high

Questions & Answers about Ef afborgunin verður of há, þurfum við að breyta áætluninni.

Why is verður used here? Is it present tense or future?

Verður is the present tense of verða, which often means become or get.

In this sentence, it means becomes / gets rather than simple is. Icelandic often uses the present tense where English might use a future idea, especially in conditional sentences.

So Ef afborgunin verður of há is literally something like If the installment becomes too high, even though in natural English you might also think of it as If the installment gets too high or If it ends up being too high.

Why does the sentence start with ef?

Ef means if and introduces a conditional clause.

The first part, Ef afborgunin verður of há, sets up the condition:

• if the installment becomes too high

Then the main clause tells you what happens in that case:

• þurfum við að breyta áætluninni

So the structure is:

Ef + condition, main clause

What is afborgunin, and why does it end in -in?

The basic noun is afborgun.

The ending -in is the suffixed definite article, so afborgunin means the installment.

That is a very normal Icelandic pattern:

• afborgun = installment
• afborgunin = the installment

Unlike English, Icelandic usually adds the onto the end of the noun instead of putting it as a separate word in front.