Breakdown of Mengunin er ógnin sem mannkynið kemur til með að leysa.
vera
to be
sem
who / which / that
leysa
to solve
koma til með að
will (prediction)
mengunin
the pollution
ógnin
the threat
mannkynið
the human race
Questions & Answers about Mengunin er ógnin sem mannkynið kemur til með að leysa.
Why use kemur til með að here instead of mun to say "will solve"?
The phrase koma til með að is used to predict a future event, often implying that something will eventually happen or naturally unfold over time. While mun also means "will", kemur til með að is very commonly used in Icelandic for describing future scenarios or predictions without necessarily implying a firm, immediate intention.
Both mengunin and ógnin end in -in. What does this tell us about these words?
The -in ending shows that they are both feminine nouns in the nominative case with the definite article ("the") attached. Mengun (pollution) becomes mengunin, and ógn (threat) becomes ógnin.
In the clause sem mannkynið kemur til með að leysa, what is the subject doing the solving?
The subject is mannkynið (humanity). It comes right after the relative pronoun sem (that/which). The literal structure is "that humanity comes to with to solve", which gives us the meaning "that humanity will solve".
Does the verb leysa usually require a specific case for its object?
Yes, leysa (to solve, untie, or release) requires its object to be in the accusative case. In this sentence, we don't see an accusative noun directly after it because the object is represented by the relative pronoun sem, which points back to the threat (ógnin) being solved.
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