Á hátíðinni í fyrra vorum við úti allan tímann, en í ár fórum við inn.

At the festival last year we were outside the whole time, but this year we went inside.

Breakdown of Á hátíðinni í fyrra vorum við úti allan tímann, en í ár fórum við inn.

• vera: to be
• við: we
• fara: to go
• tíminn: the time

Questions & Answers about Á hátíðinni í fyrra vorum við úti allan tímann, en í ár fórum við inn.

Why is it á hátíðinni? What case is hátíðinni, and why does Icelandic use á here?

Á hátíðinni means at the festival.

Two useful things are happening here:

1. The preposition

   • Icelandic often uses á with events:
     • á hátíð = at a festival
     • á tónleikum = at a concert
     • á fundi = at a meeting
   • So even though English says at, Icelandic often says á in these contexts.

2. The case

   • á can take different cases depending on meaning.
   • With location or being somewhere, it usually takes the dative.
   • Here we are talking about being at the festival, not moving onto it, so dative is used.

So:

• hátíð = festival
• hátíðinni = the festival (dative singular, with the suffixed definite article)

The -inni ending shows the definite form in the dative singular.

What does í fyrra mean exactly? Why is there no noun after fyrra?

Í fyrra is a very common fixed expression meaning last year.

Even though there is no noun written after fyrra, the meaning is understood. Learners should treat í fyrra as an idiomatic time expression rather than trying to translate each part too mechanically.

A helpful comparison:

• í ár = this year
• í fyrra = last year

So in this sentence, á hátíðinni í fyrra means at the festival last year.