Breakdown of Ég er sveittur af því að flugið er um það bil að fara.
vera
to be
ég
I
það
it / there (existential) / the one (n)
fara
to go
að
to (infinitive marker)
um
about
af því að
because
flugið
the flight
bilið
the gap
sveittur
sweaty
Questions & Answers about Ég er sveittur af því að flugið er um það bil að fara.
How does the phrase um það bil að create the immediate future aspect here?
The core phrase um það bil literally means 'around that interval' and is often used alone to mean 'approximately'. However, when you sandwich it inside the continuous aspect structure (vera + um það bil + að + infinitive), it takes on the meaning of 'to be just about to' do something. Here, it shows the flight is on the very verge of leaving.
Would a female speaker say this sentence exactly the same way?
Almost, but not quite. The adjective sveittur (sweaty) is in the masculine singular nominative form, which tells us the speaker (ég) identifies as male. A female speaker would use the feminine form and say Ég er sveitt, while a non-binary speaker would use the neuter form Ég er sveitt.
Could I use vegna þess að instead of af því að for 'because' here?
Yes, they are fully interchangeable in this context. Af því að is very common in everyday spoken Icelandic, while vegna þess að is a slightly more formal alternative. Both effectively link the two clauses to explain why the speaker is sweaty.
Why does the word að appear twice in this sentence?
They serve two entirely different grammatical functions here. The first að is a fixed part of the conjunction phrase af því að (because). The second að is an infinitive marker, equivalent to the English 'to', pairing with the verb fara to mean 'to leave'.
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