Breakdown of Bæjarstjórinn ætlar að stækka leikvöllinn.
að
to (infinitive marker)
ætla
to intend
leikvöllurinn
the playground
bæjarstjórinn
the mayor
stækka
to expand
Questions & Answers about Bæjarstjórinn ætlar að stækka leikvöllinn.
Since this lesson is about the dynamic passive voice, how would we rewrite this to say "The playground will be expanded"?
You drop the active subject (bæjarstjórinn) and make the object the new subject. Leikvöllinn (accusative) changes to Leikvöllurinn (nominative). Then, you use the verb verða and the past participle of stækka. The participle must agree with the masculine singular subject, so it becomes stækkaður. The final sentence is: Leikvöllurinn verður stækkaður.
Is the verb stækka related to the adjective stór (big)?
Yes! Many Icelandic verbs are derived from adjectives to mean "to make [adjective]" or "to become [adjective]", often involving a vowel shift. Stór shifts to stækka. You can see a similar pattern with lítill (small) becoming minnka (to decrease/shrink) or langur (long) becoming lengja (to lengthen).
Why is the word for playground in the accusative case (leikvöllinn)?
It is the direct object of the verb stækka. When stækka is used as a transitive verb (meaning someone is actively making something bigger), it forces the object into the accusative case. If you use it intransitively (e.g., "the playground is expanding"), it would take the nominative subject: Leikvöllurinn stækkar.
How do the parts of the compound word bæjarstjórinn fit together?
It is made from bær (town) and stjóri (manager/boss), with the definite article -nn at the end. In Icelandic compound words, the first noun is very often in the genitive (possessive) case to link them. The genitive of bær is bæjar, giving us bæjarstjóri (literally "manager of a town").
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