Breakdown of Jötunninn hafði stolið sverðinu áður en guðinn vaknaði.
vakna
to wake up
hafa
to have
sverðið
the sword
áður en
before
guðinn
the god
jötunninn
the giant
stela
to steal
Questions & Answers about Jötunninn hafði stolið sverðinu áður en guðinn vaknaði.
How is the past perfect tense formed in this sentence?
We use the past tense of hafa (to have), which is hafði for the third-person singular, followed by the supine form (sagnbót) of the main verb. The supine of stela (to steal) is stolið. Together, hafði stolið means had stolen.
Why is the sword in the dative case (sverðinu) instead of the accusative?
The verb stela (to steal) requires its object to be in the dative case. Since sverð (sword) is a neuter noun, its dative definite form becomes sverðinu.
Why do we need en after áður here?
Áður on its own is an adverb meaning before or previously. When you want to say before something happened and introduce a full clause with a new subject and verb, you must use the conjunction phrase áður en, as in áður en guðinn vaknaði.
Why does the second half of the sentence use the simple past tense (vaknaði)?
Just like in English, the past perfect (hafði stolið) is used to show which action happened first in the past. The giant had already stolen the sword by the time the second action occurred. The later action (the god waking up) just uses the normal simple past tense (vaknaði).
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