Breakdown of Það vaxa falleg blóm í mosanum hér.
hér
here
það
it / there (existential) / the one (n)
fallegur
beautiful
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
blómið
the flower
vaxa
to grow
mosinn
the moss
Questions & Answers about Það vaxa falleg blóm í mosanum hér.
Why do we start the sentence with Það if the translation just says 'Beautiful flowers grow...'?
This is the existential það, used as a dummy subject to introduce new, indefinite information into the sentence. It pushes the real subject (falleg blóm) further back. In English, this is like saying 'There are beautiful flowers growing...', but Icelandic uses it with many active verbs where English wouldn't naturally use 'there'.
Why is the verb vaxa plural when the first word is the singular Það?
The verb always agrees with the real subject of the sentence, not the placeholder Það. Because the real subject is the plural falleg blóm (beautiful flowers), the verb must be the plural vaxa, not the singular vex.
Could I use existential það to say 'The beautiful flowers grow in the moss here' by making the flowers definite?
No, existential það is almost exclusively used to introduce indefinite (new or unknown) subjects. If you want to talk about specific flowers, you drop the það and put the subject first: Fallegu blómin vaxa í mosanum hér.
Why is mosanum in the dative case here?
The preposition í governs the dative case when it describes a static location (where something is happening or resting). Because the flowers are just growing in place, mosi (moss) takes the dative definite form mosanum. If there were movement into the moss, í would take the accusative case instead.
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