Breakdown of Ég bý við hliðina á skólanum.
ég
I
skólinn
the school
búa
to live (in a place), to dwell
við hliðina á
next to (+ Dative)
Questions & Answers about Ég bý við hliðina á skólanum.
What is the literal translation of við hliðina á?
It literally translates to "by the side of". Icelandic uses this fixed phrase whenever you want to say that something is "next to" something else.
Why does the word for side (hlið) have the -ina ending?
The -ina ending is the definite article, meaning "the". The preposition við controls the case of the word immediately after it. In this phrase, it triggers the accusative case, so the feminine noun hlið becomes hliðina (the side).
Why does skólanum end in -num?
The preposition á at the end of við hliðina á forces the noun that follows into the dative case. Because skóli (school) is a masculine noun, adding the dative definite ending ("the") makes it skólanum.
I know búa can sometimes mean "to make". How do I know it means "to live" here?
When the verb búa is used with a location or a preposition showing where someone is, it means "to live" or "to reside". If you wanted to say "to make" or "to prepare", you would normally see it combined with the word til, forming the phrasal verb búa til.
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