Question 1

Why do we need því here? Why not just say Hún byrjar á að kveikja?

Accepted Answer

In Icelandic, a preposition (like á) cannot be followed directly by an infinitive verb phrase (like að kveikja). Instead, you have to use a dummy pronoun to connect them. The pronoun is always það (it), but since the preposition á governs the dative case here, það changes to its dative form, því.

Question 2

There are two ás in this sentence. Do they mean the same thing?

Accepted Answer

Not exactly, because they belong to two different verbs! The first á goes with byrja (byrja á means to start with or to start by). The second á goes with kveikja (kveikja á means to turn on). It is just a coincidence that both verbs happen to require the same preposition.

Question 3

I learned that 'by doing something' is usually translated as með því að... Why is it á því að... here?

Accepted Answer

You are right that með því að is the standard way to express 'by means of doing'. However, verbs related to starting and stopping, like byrja (to start) and enda (to end), strictly take the preposition á. Because we are using the verb byrja, its required preposition overrides the general rule.

Question 4

Why is it snjallsímanum rather than just snjallsíma?

Accepted Answer

The phrasal verb kveikja á takes the dative case. The base word is snjallsími (smartphone), which becomes snjallsíma in the dative. Because it means 'the' smartphone, we also add the definite article suffix for a masculine dative noun, which is -num, giving us snjallsímanum.

Hún byrjar á því að kveikja á snjallsímanum.

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