Breakdown of Við sitjum við neyðarútganginn.
sitja
to sit
við
at / by (next to)
neyðarútgangurinn
the emergency exit
Questions & Answers about Við sitjum við neyðarútganginn.
Why does the word við appear twice in this sentence?
They are two completely different words that just happen to look and sound identical. The first Við is the personal pronoun meaning 'we'. The second við is the preposition meaning 'by', 'at', or 'next to'.
We are sitting still, so there is no movement. Why is neyðarútganginn in the accusative case instead of the dative?
That is exactly what makes the preposition við special! Unlike í or á (which generally use the dative case for stationary locations and accusative for movement), við takes the accusative case when it means 'by', 'close to', or 'attached to' a location, even if no one is moving.
Neyðarútganginn is a very long word. What are its smaller parts?
It is a compound of neyð (emergency) and útgangur (exit). Notice the -ar- in the middle: that is the genitive (possessive) ending for neyð, so it literally means 'exit of emergency'. The -inn at the very end is the attached definite article meaning 'the'.
How does the ending -inn show that the exit is in the accusative case here?
The dictionary form of the word is útgangur, which is a masculine noun. In the accusative case, the -ur ending drops, leaving the stem útgang. To say 'the exit' in the accusative, you attach the masculine accusative article -inn, giving you neyðarútganginn.
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