Ég ætla að búa til súpu í kvöld.

I am going to make soup tonight.

Breakdown of Ég ætla að búa til súpu í kvöld.

• ég: I
• súpan: the soup
• í kvöld: tonight
• ætla: to be going to

Questions & Answers about Ég ætla að búa til súpu í kvöld.

What does ætla að mean in this sentence?

Ætla að is a very common Icelandic way to express intention or what someone is going to do.

So:

• Ég ætla að... = I am going to... / I intend to...

It often works a lot like English be going to, but the core idea is really intend / plan.

In this sentence:

• Ég ætla að búa til súpu í kvöld.
• literally: I intend to make soup tonight.

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Why is there an að before búa?

Here, að is the infinitive marker, like English to before a verb.

So:

• að búa til = to make
• ætla að búa til = to intend to make / to be going to make

This is a very common pattern:

• ég ætla að fara = I’m going to go
• hún ætlar að lesa = she is going to read

So the að is not a separate word with its own independent meaning here; it is part of the structure that introduces the infinitive verb.

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Does búa til mean make? I thought búa meant live.