Breakdown of Ef ísbjörninn dytti ofan í sprunguna, væri honum örugglega kalt.
vera
to be
hann
he
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
kaldur
cold
örugglega
definitely
ef
if
detta
to fall
ofan
from above, down from
ísbjörninn
the polar bear
sprungan
the crevasse
Questions & Answers about Ef ísbjörninn dytti ofan í sprunguna, væri honum örugglega kalt.
How do we form dytti, the past subjunctive of the strong verb detta (to fall)?
To form the past subjunctive of a strong verb, you start with its past tense plural form. For detta, the past plural is duttum (we fell). You take the root vowel u and apply an i-shift (i-umlaut), which changes u to y. Then, add the subjunctive ending -i for the third person singular, giving us dytti.
Why does the second half of the sentence use væri instead of var (was)?
væri is the past subjunctive of vera (to be). In Icelandic, hypothetical conditional sentences (If X happened, Y would happen) use the past subjunctive in both halves of the sentence. Like other strong verbs, væri is built from its past plural (vorum), where the o shifts to æ.
Why is the polar bear referred to as honum (dative) rather than hann (nominative)?
Expressing body temperature (feeling hot or cold) uses an impersonal construction in Icelandic. Instead of saying "he is cold", the grammar literally translates closer to "to him is cold". Therefore, the subject takes the dative case (honum). Because the subject is dative, the adjective kalt (cold) defaults to its neuter form.
Why is the crevasse (sprunguna) in the accusative case here?
The preposition í (in/into) takes the accusative case when it describes movement or direction towards a destination. Because the polar bear is falling into the crevasse (ofan í sprunguna), there is active movement, so we use the accusative. If he were already resting statically at the bottom of the crevasse, it would take the dative case instead.
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