Breakdown of Við höfðum gramsað mikið áður en við sáum ýmsa forngripi.
við
we
mikið
a lot
sjá
to see
hafa
to have
áður en
before
ýmis
various / several (diverse)
gramsa
to rummage
forngripurinn
the antique
Questions & Answers about Við höfðum gramsað mikið áður en við sáum ýmsa forngripi.
Why is the word for various written as ýmsa here instead of ýmis or ýmislegt?
It is describing forngripi (antiques), which is a masculine plural noun. Because it is the direct object of the verb sáum (saw), it must be in the accusative case. The indefinite pronoun ýmis agrees with this, becoming the accusative masculine plural ýmsa. Notice how the second 'i' in ýmis disappears when the plural ending is added!
What if we were only talking about one antique?
If you had rummaged before seeing a single antique, you would use the accusative singular forms: við sáum ýmsan forngrip. Just like in the plural form, the second 'i' drops out of ýmis to make ýmsan.
Why use höfðum gramsað instead of just the simple past tense?
This is the past perfect tense (had rummaged), which you form with the past tense of hafa plus a verb's supine form. We use it here to clearly show that the rummaging was completely finished before the second past action of seeing the antiques (við sáum) took place.
Doesn't áður mean before on its own? Why do we need to add en?
By itself, áður is an adverb meaning previously or beforehand (as in 'I have been here before'). But when you are linking two clauses together to say that one thing happened before a specific action ('before we saw...'), you must use the conjunction phrase áður en.
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