When you are a nosey neighbor spying on the street, you need a way to share your suspicions without stating them as absolute facts. In Icelandic, you do this using impersonal perception verbs.
| I grab my binoculars as soon as I see something shady. | Ég tek kíkinn minn um leið og ég sé eitthvað skuggalegt. |
Visual Assumptions with "Mér sýnist"
To express how something looks or seems, use sýnast. As an impersonal verb, the perceiver takes the dative case (mér) and the verb is fixed in the middle voice (sýnist).
Follow this with an að (that) clause. Because you are sharing an assumption rather than a hard fact, the verb inside the að clause takes the subjunctive mood (such as sé instead of er, or ætli instead of ætla).
| It looks to me like the man is sneaking in the garden. | Mér sýnist að maðurinn sé að læðast í garðinum. |
| It looks to me like the boys are going to break into the house! | Mér sýnist að strákarnir ætli að brjótast inn í húsið! |
Auditory Assumptions with "Mér heyrist"
For auditory assumptions (what something sounds like), use the exact same structure with the verb heyrast. Start with mér heyrist (it sounds to me), followed by your að clause and a subjunctive verb.
| It sounds to me like some unknown man is screaming. | Mér heyrist að einhver óþekktur maður sé að öskra. |
| It sounds to me like they are going to fight! | Mér heyrist að þau ætli að sláast! |
