Breakdown of Barnið er búið að vera að sparka mikið á þessari meðgöngu.
vera
to be
barnið
the child
mikið
a lot
að
to (infinitive marker)
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
þessi
this (m/f)
búinn
finished
meðgangan
the pregnancy
sparka
to kick
Questions & Answers about Barnið er búið að vera að sparka mikið á þessari meðgöngu.
How do you form the 'has been kicking' structure in this sentence?
To say someone 'has been doing' something, Icelandic combines two structures you already know. You take the 'finished doing' structure (vera búinn að) and add the continuous 'currently doing' structure (vera að). Here, it builds literally as 'The child is finished to be to kick' (Barnið er búið að vera að sparka), which translates to the present perfect continuous 'has been kicking'.
Why is the word for 'finished' written as búið instead of búinn?
The word búinn acts like an adjective in this structure and must always agree with the subject in gender and number. Since barnið (the child) is a neuter word, búinn changes to its neuter singular form, búið.
Why do we use the preposition á here to mean 'during'?
The preposition á usually translates to 'on', but it is also very commonly used for specific time periods, states, or events. Saying á þessari meðgöngu is the standard Icelandic way to express 'during this pregnancy'.
What case is þessari meðgöngu in, and why?
It is in the dative case. The preposition á triggers the dative case when it describes a point in time or a static situation (like a pregnancy) rather than physical movement. The dictionary form of the noun is meðganga (a feminine noun), which changes its ending to -u in the dative, and the word for 'this' (þessi) becomes þessari to match.
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