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

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.

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

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.

Because adjectives in Icelandic agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.

Here, afborgunin is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective must also be feminine singular nominative:

• hár = masculine
• há = feminine
• hátt = neuter

That is why the sentence has of há.

Here of means too or overly.

So:

• of há = too high

This is a very common Icelandic word, and it is completely unrelated to the English preposition of.

Examples:

• of dýrt = too expensive
• of stórt = too big
• of seint = too late

This is because Icelandic follows a verb-second pattern in main clauses.

The whole opening conditional clause Ef afborgunin verður of há counts as the first element of the sentence. After that, the finite verb of the main clause comes next, so you get:

• Ef ..., þurfum við ...

If there were no opening if-clause, you would normally say:

• Við þurfum að breyta áætluninni.

So the word order changes because something else has been placed first.

Þurfum is the 1st person plural present tense of þurfa.

So:

• ég þarf = I need
• við þurfum = we need

The ending -um is a clue that the subject is we.

Icelandic verbs change form depending on person and number, more than English verbs usually do.

Because Icelandic normally still uses the subject pronoun.

Even though the verb ending already helps identify the subject, it is standard to say við. So þurfum við is the normal full form, not an unnecessary repetition.

In other words, Icelandic is not like languages where the subject pronoun is often dropped.

Because þurfa is commonly followed by að + infinitive.

So:

• þurfa að gera = need to do
• þurfa að fara = need to go
• þurfum að breyta = we need to change

Here breyta is the infinitive, and að is the normal marker used before it.

Because the verb breyta takes the dative case.

That means the thing being changed appears in the dative:

• breyta einhverju = change something

The basic noun is áætlun:

• áætlun = plan

Its definite dative singular form is:

• áætluninni = the plan

So:

• að breyta áætluninni = to change the plan

This is one of those verb patterns that English speakers usually just have to learn:

• English: change something
• Icelandic: breyta + dative

Yes. A very literal breakdown is:

• Ef = if
• afborgunin = the installment
• verður = becomes / gets
• of = too
• há = high
• þurfum við = need we / we need
• að breyta = to change
• áætluninni = the plan (dative)

So the structure is essentially:

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