Breakdown of Forritarinn útbjó gagnagrunninn á einni viku.
einn
one
vikan
the week (f)
á
in (within a time span)
forritarinn
the programmer
útbúa
to prepare (e.g. food, equipment)
gagnagrunnurinn
the database
Questions & Answers about Forritarinn útbjó gagnagrunninn á einni viku.
Why does the sentence use á to mean "in" one week?
When talking about the amount of time it takes to complete an action, Icelandic uses the preposition á followed by the dative case. Even though it translates to "in" in English, using í here would be incorrect.
What is the infinitive of útbjó and how is it conjugated?
The infinitive is útbúa (to prepare or create). It conjugates exactly like the common verb búa (to live or make), just with the prefix út- attached. The past tense of búa is bjó, so útbúa becomes útbjó.
Why does gagnagrunninn end with a double N?
It is the definite accusative form of the masculine noun gagnagrunnur (database). The word is made of gagna (of data) and grunnur (foundation). In the accusative case, the masculine noun grunnur becomes grunn, and adding the definite article -inn gives us gagnagrunninn.
Why is the word for "one" written as einni here?
The number einn must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it modifies. Since viku (week) is a feminine noun in the dative case because of the preposition á, einn changes to its feminine dative form, einni.
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