Breakdown of Frostið kemur eftir tvo daga, svo verkamaðurinn heldur áfram að safna heyinu.
koma
to come
að
to (infinitive marker)
tveir
two
svo
then / so (therefore)
dagurinn
the day (m)
halda áfram
to continue, keep going
eftir
after / for (waiting for)
safna
to collect
frostið
the frost
heyið
the hay
verkamaðurinn
the worker
Questions & Answers about Frostið kemur eftir tvo daga, svo verkamaðurinn heldur áfram að safna heyinu.
How does the phrase halda áfram að work here, and why is the verb spelled heldur?
The phrase halda áfram að means "to continue to" or "to keep on doing something." It is made up of the verb halda (to hold), the adverb áfram (forward/onwards), and the infinitive marker að followed by a verb. Because the subject here is verkamaðurinn (the worker, a "he"), the verb halda is conjugated in the third person singular as heldur.
Doesn't eftir usually mean "after"? Why is eftir tvo daga translated as "in two days"?
While eftir does mean "after," Icelandic uses it to talk about an event happening at a specific time in the future where English would use "in." Literally it means "after two days have passed," which gives us "in two days." Notice that eftir governs the accusative case here, which is why the number two becomes the masculine accusative tvo and days becomes daga.
Why is the word for hay (heyinu) in the dative case?
The word heyinu is in the dative case because it is the object of the verb safna (to gather or collect). In Icelandic, safna is a verb that always forces its object to be in the dative case. The ending -inu is the neuter singular definite article in the dative, making it "the hay."
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