Breakdown of Ritarinn sagði að fyrirspurnin væri mikilvæg.
vera
to be
að
that (conjunction)
mikilvægur
important
segja
to say
ritarinn
the secretary
fyrirspurnin
the inquiry
Questions & Answers about Ritarinn sagði að fyrirspurnin væri mikilvæg.
Why do we use the past subjunctive væri here instead of the past indicative var?
In Icelandic, reported speech (telling someone what another person said) usually requires the subjunctive mood. Because the main verb sagði (said) is in the past tense, the original present tense verb backshifts to the past subjunctive væri.
What would this sentence look like if the secretary was speaking right now?
If the main verb was in the present tense (segir), the reported speech would use the present subjunctive sé. The sentence would be: Ritarinn segir að fyrirspurnin sé mikilvæg.
Why is the adjective mikilvæg and not mikilvægur?
Adjectives must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe. The noun fyrirspurn (inquiry) is feminine. Since it is the subject of the að clause, it is in the nominative singular, so the adjective takes the feminine nominative singular form mikilvæg.
What kind of noun is ritarinn?
It is the definite form of ritari (secretary), which is a weak masculine noun. Weak masculine nouns end in a vowel in the nominative, and to say "the secretary", you simply add the masculine article suffix -nn to get ritarinn.
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