Breakdown of Hann er í blárri peysu og þykist vera útlendingur.
vera
to be
og
and
hann
he
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
peysan
the sweater
blár
blue
þykjast
to pretend
útlendingurinn
the foreigner
Questions & Answers about Hann er í blárri peysu og þykist vera útlendingur.
Could I use eins og (like / as) here instead of þykist vera?
Yes, if you change the verb! You could say ...og hagar sér eins og útlendingur (...and behaves like a foreigner). However, the sentence uses þykjast (to pretend) paired with vera (to be). Using þykist vera means he is actively trying to trick people into thinking he is a foreigner, whereas eins og would just compare his behavior to one.
Why is blárri peysu in the dative case?
To express wearing a piece of clothing in Icelandic, you use the preposition í (in) followed by the dative case. Literally, the sentence says "he is in a blue sweater." Blárri is the feminine dative singular form of the adjective blár (blue), matching the noun peysa (sweater).
What kind of verb is þykist, and where does it come from?
It is a middle voice verb (a verb ending in -st). It comes from the verb þykja, which means "to seem" or "to find/consider." When you add the -st ending to make the verb þykjast, the meaning shifts to "to pretend" (literally, to make oneself seem a certain way).
Why is útlendingur in the nominative case rather than the accusative?
Because it follows the infinitive verb vera (to be). The verb vera doesn't take a direct object; instead, it acts like an equals sign linking the noun back to the subject. Since the main subject of the sentence, hann (he), is in the nominative case, útlendingur (foreigner) must also be in the nominative case.
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