Witnessing Actions: sjá and heyra
To describe witnessing an action as it unfolds, Icelandic uses the "Accusative with Infinitive" structure.
When you use a verb of perception like sjá (to see) or heyra (to hear):
- The person or thing being observed takes the accusative case.
- The action they perform takes the bare infinitive (the dictionary form of the verb without the word að).
This is similar to how it works in English. We say "I see him run," not "I see him to run."
| The detective sees the suspicious man run into the alley. | Spæjarinn sér grunsamlega manninn hlaupa í húsasundið. |
| The detective hears them talk about the piece of evidence. | Spæjarinn heyrir þá tala um sönnunargagnið. |
If the infinitive verb being observed requires its own object in a specific case, that requirement stays exactly the same. For example, the verb lauma (to sneak) takes a dative object:
| I hear the accomplice sneak the briefcase into the car. | Ég heyri samverkamanninn lauma skjalatöskunni í bílinn. |
In the sentence above, the accomplice (samverkamanninn) is accusative because he is the one being heard, but the briefcase (skjalatöskunni) is dative because it is the object being sneaked.
Surveillance Vocabulary
Two essential surveillance verbs are njósna (to spy) and fylgjast með (to keep an eye on).
The preposition með requires the following noun to be in the dative case:
| The accomplice keeps an eye on the alley. | Samverkamaðurinn fylgist með húsasundinu. |
You can seamlessly combine these surveillance verbs with the perception verbs you just learned. The entire phrase fylgjast með acts as the bare infinitive:
| The woman sees the accomplice monitor the detective. | Konan sér samverkamanninn fylgjast með spæjaranum. |
When using njósna (to spy), it is often paired with the preposition um followed by the accusative case:
| We see the woman open the briefcase, because we spy on her. | Við sjáum konuna opna skjalatöskuna, af því að við njósnum um hana. |
