Ef ég hefði meiri tíma, gæti ég hjólað í vinnuna.

It is a hypothetical, contrary-to-fact condition.

The sentence suggests something like:

• the speaker does not have enough time now
• because of that, cycling to work is only a possibility in an imagined situation

So this is not just a neutral if. It is more like English If I had more time, I could..., where the speaker implies that the condition is not currently true.

Hefði is the past subjunctive of hafa.

In Icelandic, a present-time unreal or hypothetical condition is often expressed with the past subjunctive, not the present indicative.

Compare:

• ég hef tíma = I have time
• ég hafði tíma = I had time
• ég hefði tíma = I would have / if I had time

So in Ef ég hefði meiri tíma..., the form hefði shows that this is an imagined situation, not a simple statement about reality.

Gæti is the past subjunctive of geta.

Just like hefði, it marks the sentence as hypothetical. In English, this comes out as could in a conditional sense:

• ég get = I can
• ég gat = I could / was able to
• ég gæti = I could / would be able to

So gæti ég hjólað í vinnuna means something like I could cycle to work under that imagined condition.

Because Icelandic often uses the subjunctive verb forms themselves to express the kind of meaning that English often builds with would.

In this sentence, the hypothetical meaning is already carried by:

• hefði
• gæti

So Icelandic does not need an extra helper word here. English often uses a combination like would have, could, would be able to, but Icelandic can express that through mood and verb form.

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

The sentence starts with the subordinate clause:

• Ef ég hefði meiri tíma

After that, the main clause begins, and the finite verb comes first:

• gæti ég hjólað í vinnuna

So the structure is:

• subordinate clause first
• then the finite verb of the main clause
• then the subject

If the main clause stood alone, you would normally say:

• Ég gæti hjólað í vinnuna.

Meiri is correct because it agrees with tíma, which is masculine singular here.

A few things are happening:

• tími = time
• after hafa, the object is in the accusative
• accusative singular of tími is tíma
• meiri is the comparative form that matches this noun

So:

• meiri tíma = more time

Why not the others?

• meira would be neuter, so it does not match tími
• fleiri is used for countable plural things: more people, more books, more days, etc.

Time here is treated as a quantity, so meiri is the natural choice.

Because after geta, Icelandic normally uses the supine form, often called sagnbót.

So the pattern is:

• geta + supine

Examples:

• ég get farið = I can go
• ég get lesið = I can read
• ég get hjólað = I can cycle

So in this sentence:

• gæti ég hjólað = I could cycle

This form may look like a past participle to an English speaker, but here it is just the normal form used after geta.

Because geta does not take að before the following verb.

So you say:

• ég get hjólað
• ég gæti hjólað

not:

• ég get að hjólað

This is something you mostly just learn as part of the verb pattern:

• geta + supine

Here í means movement to / into a place, and that takes the accusative.

So:

• í vinnuna = to work
• vinnuna is accusative singular definite

This is very common Icelandic usage:

• fara í vinnuna = go to work
• hjóla í vinnuna = cycle to work

The definite form is idiomatic here: it refers to the workplace, essentially one’s work / the place where one works.

Yes.

This is an important accusative vs. dative contrast after í:

• í vinnuna = to work, into work, motion toward a destination
• í vinnunni = at work, in the workplace, location

So:

• Ég hjóla í vinnuna. = I cycle to work.
• Ég er í vinnunni. = I am at work.

This is a very common Icelandic pattern:

• motion → accusative
• location → dative

In standard written Icelandic, yes, this comma is normal.

The subordinate clause comes first:

• Ef ég hefði meiri tíma,

and then the main clause follows:

• gæti ég hjólað í vinnuna.

In informal writing, people may sometimes leave commas out, but in normal edited Icelandic this comma is what you would expect.

Then you would usually switch out of the past subjunctive and use more ordinary present forms.

For example:

• Ef ég hef meiri tíma, get ég hjólað í vinnuna.

That means something more like:

• If I have more time, I can cycle to work.

So the contrast is:

• Ef ég hefði..., gæti... = hypothetical / unreal
• Ef ég hef..., get... = open / real possibility