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Ég veit ekki hvort þjónninn var dónalegur.

Ég veit ekki hvort þjónninn var dónalegur.
I do not know whether the waiter was rude.
From Lesson 182:Negative correlatives (hvorki... né)·Icelandic

Questions & Answers about Ég veit ekki hvort þjónninn var dónalegur.

The lesson is about hvorki ... né (neither ... nor). Why does this sentence use hvort?
Hvort means whether or which of two. It comes from the exact same root as hvorki (which literally means not which of two). While hvorki is used to say neither, hvort is used here to introduce an indirect question with two implied possibilities: whether he was rude or not.
Why is dónalegur in the nominative case here?
The adjective dónalegur (rude) describes þjónninn (the waiter). Because the verb is var (was), it acts as an equals sign linking the subject to the adjective. The subject þjónninn is in the nominative case, so the describing adjective must also be nominative, as well as matching the masculine singular form.
I always hear about the V2 rule (verb in second place). Why is var the third word in the subordinate clause hvort þjónninn var dónalegur?
Subordinate clauses introduced by words like hvort or að generally follow a straight Subject-Verb order. The conjunction hvort joins the clauses, and then we see the subject þjónninn followed immediately by the verb var.
Does hvort always mean whether?
Not always! When asking a direct question, hvort translates to which (of two options), such as Hvort viltu kaffi eða te? (Which do you want, coffee or tea?). In this sentence, because it introduces a dependent clause after ég veit ekki, it translates to whether.

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