Questions & Answers about Af hverju gerir þú þetta svona?
What does af hverju mean, and is it the normal way to say why?
Yes. Af hverju is a very common and natural way to say why in Icelandic.
A few useful notes:
- af hverju = why
- Another common option is hvers vegna, which is a bit more formal or neutral in tone.
- In everyday speech, af hverju is extremely common.
So in this sentence, Af hverju introduces the question just like Why does in English.
Why is it gerir þú instead of þú gerir?
Because Icelandic usually changes the word order in direct questions.
In a normal statement, you would usually have:
- Þú gerir þetta svona.
= You do this like this / this way.
In a question, the finite verb typically comes before the subject:
- Af hverju gerir þú þetta svona?
So this is the normal question pattern:
- question word
- verb
- subject
- the rest of the sentence
This is similar to English Why do you..., where English also changes the normal statement order.
What form is gerir?