Er sætið laust núna?

to be

Breakdown of Er sætið laust núna?

• núna: now
• laus: free
• sætið: the seat

Questions & Answers about Er sætið laust núna?

Why does the sentence start with Er?

Because Icelandic yes/no questions usually put the finite verb first.

So the statement would be:

• Sætið er laust núna. = The seat is free now.

To turn that into a yes/no question, Icelandic switches the order:

• Er sætið laust núna? = Is the seat free now?

This is similar to English is the seat free?

What exactly is er?

Er is the present tense form of vera, which means to be.

Here it is the third-person singular form, because sætið is a singular noun, and singular nouns take third-person singular verbs in Icelandic:

• sætið er = the seat is

Why is it sætið and not just sæti?

Because sætið means the seat, while sæti means a seat / seat.

Icelandic usually does not use a separate word like English the. Instead, the definite article is often added to the end of the noun.

So:

• sæti = seat
• sætið = the seat

In this sentence, -ið is the definite ending.

What gender is sæti, and why does that matter?