Time feels different when you are stranded on a desert island. To narrate your daily struggles, you will need to mark the exact beginning or end of a timespan using two key subordinating conjunctions.
Starting a Timespan with "Síðan"
Use síðan (since) to show that a situation has been ongoing since a specific starting point:
| I have been on the desert island since the ship burned. | Ég hef verið á eyðieyjunni síðan skipið brann. |
| I have drunk the water from the shell since the coconut fell. | Ég hef drukkið vatnið úr skelinni síðan kókoshnetan datt. |
Ending a Timespan with "Þangað til"
To mark the end of a timespan, use þangað til (until). It introduces the event that interrupts or concludes the action in the main clause:
| One just eats the crab until one finds the spear. | Maður borðar bara krabbann þangað til maður finnur spjótið. |
In both spoken and written Icelandic, it is common to add the particle að right after the conjunction. Both þangað til and þangað til að mean exactly the same thing and are interchangeable:
| The crab hid in the shell until I left. | Krabbinn faldi sig í skelinni þangað til að ég fór. |
| I wait here until the raft burns. | Ég bíð hérna þangað til að flekinn brennur. |
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