Breakdown of Mun tímaramminn hafa breyst fyrir helgina?
helgin
the weekend
hafa
to have
breytast
to change (intransitive)
munu
will
fyrir
before (time)
tímaramminn
the timeframe
Questions & Answers about Mun tímaramminn hafa breyst fyrir helgina?
Why does the subject tímaramminn split the verbs mun and hafa?
In Icelandic yes/no questions, the finite (conjugated) verb comes first. Here, that is mun. The subject tímaramminn must immediately follow it. The rest of the future perfect verb phrase, the infinitive hafa and the supine breyst, come after the subject.
How exactly does mun hafa breyst form the future perfect tense?
It uses the exact same structure as English! You start with the conjugated future auxiliary mun (will), follow it with the infinitive hafa (have), and end with the supine form of the main verb, breyst (changed). It describes an action that will be completed before a specific future deadline.
Why is the supine form breyst used here instead of breytt?
Breyst is the supine of the middle voice verb breytast (to change, to alter). You use the middle voice here because the timeframe is changing itself (it is intransitive). If you used the active verb breyta (supine breytt), it would mean somebody is changing something else, which would require an object in the dative case.
Why is helgina in the accusative case here?
The preposition fyrir governs different cases depending on its meaning. When it means "before" in a temporal sense, as it does here indicating a deadline, it always takes the accusative case. Therefore, helgi with the attached definite article becomes helgina.
Learn Mun tímaramminn hafa breyst fyrir helgina and more in Icelandic
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free