Breakdown of Við drekkum haframjólk í stað mjólkur.
við
we
drekka
to drink
mjólkin
the milk
í stað
instead of
haframjólkin
the oat milk
Questions & Answers about Við drekkum haframjólk í stað mjólkur.
Why is the second milk mjólkur when the first one is haframjólk?
The phrase í stað (instead of) is a complex preposition that forces the noun following it into the genitive case. Mjólkur is the genitive form of mjólk. The first one, haframjólk, is the direct object of the verb drekkum so it takes the accusative case, which happens to look identical to its dictionary form.
What does the phrase í stað literally mean?
It literally translates to "in place". The word stað is the accusative form of the masculine noun staður (place or location) after the preposition í. So í stað mjólkur essentially means "in the place of milk". It is directly related to the English word "stead" in "instead".
If I wanted to say "instead of the milk" (with the definite article), how would mjólkur change?
You would add the definite article suffix for a feminine genitive noun, making it mjólkurinnar. The sentence would become Við drekkum haframjólk í stað mjólkurinnar.
I have also heard í staðinn fyrir. Can I use that here?
Yes, í staðinn fyrir is very common, especially in spoken Icelandic. However, unlike í stað, the preposition fyrir governs the accusative case here. If you swap it in, the sentence becomes Við drekkum haframjólk í staðinn fyrir mjólk. Using í stað with the genitive is slightly more formal and concise, but both are completely correct.
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