Breakdown of Mér finnst best að ganga að árbakkanum.
ég
I
góður
good
finnast
to find, to think
ganga
to walk
að
to, towards
árbakkinn
the riverbank
Questions & Answers about Mér finnst best að ganga að árbakkanum.
Why is að used twice in this sentence, and do they mean the same thing?
No, they serve completely different purposes here. The first að is the infinitive marker before the verb, translating to the word to in 'to walk' (að ganga). The second að is a preposition meaning to or towards, pointing out the direction of the walk (að árbakkanum).
I thought prepositions showing motion usually take the accusative case. Why is árbakkanum in the dative case here?
You are right that motion often triggers the accusative case (like with í or á), but að is an exception. The preposition að always forces the following noun into the dative case, regardless of whether there is motion involved. Here, it indicates moving towards a specific physical boundary.
Could I use the preposition til instead of að to say I am walking 'to' the riverbank?
While both mean to, að is much more natural here. We use að when moving towards a physical boundary, edge, or target (like a bank, a door, or a window). Til is usually reserved for traveling to broader destinations (like countries or cities) or to a person. Also, remember that if you did use til, it would force the noun into the genitive case instead of the dative!
How is the word árbakkanum formed?
It is a compound word made of ár (the genitive or possessive form of á, meaning river) and bakkanum (the dative, definite form of bakki, meaning bank). So it literally means the river's bank. Since bakki is a weak masculine noun, its dative definite ending is -num.
Why does the sentence start with mér (dative) instead of ég (nominative)?
The verb form finnst (meaning finds or thinks) belongs to a group of verbs that require a dative experiencer. Instead of saying 'I find it', Icelandic phrases it more like 'It is found to me'. Therefore, ég becomes the dative mér.
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