Breakdown of Ég er nýbúinn að byrja að laga rofann.
vera
to be
ég
I
að
to (infinitive marker)
byrja
to start
laga
to fix
nýbúinn
just finished
rofinn
the switch
Questions & Answers about Ég er nýbúinn að byrja að laga rofann.
Why are there two aðs in this sentence?
This sentence chains two different grammar structures that both require að plus an infinitive verb. First, we have vera nýbúinn að (to have just done something) followed by the infinitive byrja (to start). Second, as you are learning in this lesson, the verb byrja itself pairs with að plus another infinitive to mean 'start doing something' (byrja að laga).
Does nýbúinn change depending on who is speaking?
Yes. Just like the standard vera búinn að, the word nýbúinn acts like an adjective and must agree in gender and number with the subject. Because it is nýbúinn (masculine singular), we know the speaker Ég identifies as male. A female speaker would say Ég er nýbúin and a non-binary speaker would use the neuter nýbúið.
I learned gera við for repairing things. Can I use that instead of laga here?
Yes, you could say byrja að gera við rofann. The verb laga is very common for fixing or adjusting things, often implying a simpler or quicker fix, while gera við can sound a bit more like a formal repair job. Both work perfectly fine here.
Why is it rofann and not rofa?
The verb laga takes the accusative case. The base word for 'switch' is the weak masculine noun rofi. In the accusative, rofi becomes rofa. Because the speaker is talking about a specific switch ('the switch'), we add the definite article suffix -nn for the masculine accusative, giving us rofann.
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