Breakdown of Mér heyrist að einhver óþekktur maður sé að öskra.
vera
to be
maðurinn
the man
mér
me (dative)
að
to (infinitive marker)
einhver
someone / some / any (before a noun)
öskra
to scream
heyrast
it sounds to me (impersonal)
óþekktur
unknown
Questions & Answers about Mér heyrist að einhver óþekktur maður sé að öskra.
Why do we use mér heyrist here instead of just ég heyri?
ég heyri means "I hear" as a direct physical fact. mér heyrist is the middle-voice form used with the dative experiencer mér to mean "it sounds to me" or "I get the impression by hearing". You use this when you are interpreting a sound rather than just stating that you hear something.
Why is the verb sé used here instead of er?
sé is the subjunctive form of vera (to be). We use the subjunctive mood here because mér heyrist að introduces a subjective impression or a deduction, rather than an absolute stated fact.
Since the sentence starts with the dative mér, why is einhver óþekktur maður in the nominative case?
The word að starts a completely new clause. Inside this new clause, einhver óþekktur maður (some unknown man) is the subject performing the action, so it takes the default nominative case regardless of the dative pronoun in the main clause.
What is the second að doing in sé að öskra?
It forms the continuous aspect! While the first að is a conjunction meaning "that", the second að works with the verb vera (here as sé) to show an ongoing action. Together, sé að öskra means "is screaming" right now.
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