Breakdown of Sá sem fær stöðuna er venjulega hæfur umsækjandi.
vera
to be
venjulega
usually
fá
to get
sem
who / which / that
sá
that (sá, sú, það; þann)
staðan
the position / the situation
hæfur
qualified
umsækjandinn
the applicant
Questions & Answers about Sá sem fær stöðuna er venjulega hæfur umsækjandi.
Why do we use Sá sem here instead of just starting with Sem?
In Icelandic, you cannot start a relative clause out of nowhere. You need a pronoun to anchor it. To say 'the one who' or 'he who', you use the demonstrative pronoun sá followed by the relative particle sem. We use the masculine sá because the person it refers to, the umsækjandi (applicant), is a masculine noun.
How does the word stöðuna get its ending here?
The base word is the feminine noun staða (position). Because it is the direct object of the verb fá (to get), it takes the accusative case, becoming stöðu. Then, the definite article is added to the end to mean 'the position', resulting in stöðuna.
Why is hæfur in the nominative case when stöðuna was just in the accusative?
The word stöðuna is only the object of the inner relative clause (sem fær stöðuna). The skeleton of the main sentence is Sá ... er venjulega hæfur umsækjandi. Because it follows the verb er (is), the phrase hæfur umsækjandi must be in the nominative case to match the main subject Sá.
The word umsækjandi ends in -andi. Is this a verb form?
It originates from one! The -andi ending creates the present participle (similar to English '-ing'). However, Icelandic frequently turns these participle forms into masculine nouns to describe a person performing that action. Here, it functions entirely as a noun meaning 'applicant'.
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