Breakdown of Hann sagði að fjarfundurinn byrjaði strax.
hann
he
strax
right away
byrja
to start
að
that (conjunction)
segja
to say
fjarfundurinn
the video call
Questions & Answers about Hann sagði að fjarfundurinn byrjaði strax.
Why is byrjaði in the past tense if the meeting was probably starting at that very moment?
This is the rule of backshifting in reported speech. Because the reporting verb sagði (said) is in the past tense, the verb in the að clause must also step back into the past tense (byrjaði). His original words were likely Fjarfundurinn byrjar strax (The video call starts immediately).
How is the word fjarfundurinn built?
It is a compound word made of the prefix fjar- (meaning remote or distant) and the noun fundur (meeting). The -inn at the end is the definite article, making it the remote meeting or the video call.
Is byrjaði in the subjunctive mood here because it is reported speech?
It is actually the indicative mood. While reported speech often triggers the subjunctive in Icelandic, the verb segja (to say) usually takes the regular indicative when simply reporting a stated fact. It just forces the tense to shift to the past. Note that for regular verbs like byrja, the past indicative and past subjunctive forms look exactly the same anyway!
Can I leave out að here, just like we often drop the word that in English?
No, unlike in English where saying He said the video call started sounds perfectly natural, you cannot drop að in Icelandic. It must always be included to connect the main sentence to the reported speech.
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