Breakdown of Göngustígurinn hjá skólanum verður stækkaður á morgun.
skólinn
the school
á morgun
tomorrow
hjá
next to / at (someone's) place, with
verða
to become; will be
göngustígurinn
the footpath
stækka
to expand
Questions & Answers about Göngustígurinn hjá skólanum verður stækkaður á morgun.
Why do we use verður here instead of er?
In Icelandic, the passive voice often uses vera (to be) to describe a current state, but verða (to become / will be) is used for a dynamic action or a change that is going to happen. Because the expansion of the path is an action taking place tomorrow, we use the dynamic passive with verður.
Why does the past participle stækkaður end in -ur?
In passive sentences, the past participle acts like an adjective and must match the subject in gender, number, and case. The subject here is göngustígurinn (the footpath), which is a masculine, singular noun in the nominative case. Therefore, the participle stækkaður takes the masculine nominative singular ending -ur.
Since verður is technically present tense, how does the sentence show the future?
Icelandic does not have a dedicated future tense. Instead, it relies on the present tense combined with context. Here, the time phrase á morgun (tomorrow) paired with the inherently forward-looking verb verða makes it perfectly clear that the action happens in the future.
Why is "the school" written as skólanum instead of the nominative form skólinn?
It changes because of the preposition hjá (by / next to). In Icelandic, hjá always forces the noun that immediately follows it into the dative case. The dative, singular, definite form of skóli is skólanum.
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