Breakdown of Strákurinn vaknar alltaf snemma, en ég vek hann stundum.
ég
I
hann
he
en
but
strákurinn
the boy
alltaf
always
stundum
sometimes
vakna
to wake up
snemma
early
vekja
to wake somebody up
Questions & Answers about Strákurinn vaknar alltaf snemma, en ég vek hann stundum.
Why does this sentence use two different words, vaknar and vek, for "waking up"?
This sentence perfectly shows the difference between intransitive and transitive verb pairs. Vakna is intransitive, meaning it's an action the subject does on their own (the boy wakes up). Vekja is its transitive partner, an action the subject does to a direct object (I wake him up).
Is there a rule for how the root verb vakna changes to vekja?
Yes! Many transitive causative verbs are created from an intransitive base by shifting the root vowel. A root 'a' typically shifts to 'e', and a -j- is added to form the new infinitive (vekja). When conjugated for ég, the -j- drops out, leaving vek.
Why does vekja take hann as its object instead of honum?
While many verbs that affect other people take the dative case, vekja requires its object to be in the accusative case. The accusative form of the masculine pronoun is hann, which happens to look identical to its nominative subject form.
Why is the adverb stundum at the very end instead of before the verb?
Because of the V2 rule, verbs in a main clause must come second, so the adverb cannot go between the subject and the verb. Usually, adverbs like stundum or alltaf follow the verb immediately, but when the object is a short pronoun like hann, the pronoun steps in front of the adverb. This gives us the order: verb + pronoun + adverb (vek hann stundum).
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