Breakdown of Tvíburarnir eru óaðskiljanlegir og ég hjálpa þeim báðum stundum.
vera
to be
og
and
ég
I
þeir
they (m)
stundum
sometimes
hjálpa
to help
báðir
both (m, f, n)
tvíburinn
the twin
óaðskiljanlegur
inseparable
Questions & Answers about Tvíburarnir eru óaðskiljanlegir og ég hjálpa þeim báðum stundum.
Why is báðum used here instead of báðir, and does its gender matter?
The verb hjálpa (to help) always forces its object into the dative case. Since þeim (them) becomes dative, báðum (both) must also be dative to agree with it. A handy feature of the pronoun báðir is that in the dative plural, it is exactly the same (báðum) for masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns!
Óaðskiljanlegir is a massive word! How can I break it down to make sense of it?
Why do we say þeim báðum instead of just báðum?
Just like in English, you usually include the pronoun when referring back to specific people. Saying ég hjálpa báðum means "I help both," but ég hjálpa þeim báðum translates directly to "I help both of them," which flows much better since we just introduced the twins.
Why does the adverb stundum look like it has a dative plural noun ending?
Because it originally was exactly that! It is a fossilized dative plural of the noun stund (a moment or period of time). Today it is used strictly as an adverb meaning "sometimes," but recognizing that -um ending helps explain its origin.
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