Breakdown of Ég veit ekki hvort fingrafarið sýnir að maðurinn er sekur.
vera
to be
ég
I
maðurinn
the man
ekki
not
sýna
to show
vita
to know (a fact, information)
að
that (conjunction)
hvort
whether
fingrafarið
the fingerprint
sekur
guilty
Questions & Answers about Ég veit ekki hvort fingrafarið sýnir að maðurinn er sekur.
How could we apply this lesson's grammar to say 'The fingerprint must have shown that the man is guilty'?
To express past logical deduction, you use the modal verb hljóta, followed by að hafa and the supine form of the main verb. Here, the main verb is sýna, and its supine is sýnt. So you would say: Fingrafarið hlýtur að hafa sýnt að maðurinn er sekur.
Why do we use hvort here instead of ef?
In Icelandic, hvort is used to mean 'whether' or 'if' in indirect questions where there are alternative possibilities (such as whether something is true or not). Ef only translates to 'if' in conditional sentences, like 'If it rains, we will stay inside.' Since 'I do not know if...' introduces an indirect question, hvort is the only correct choice.
Why is the adjective sekur in this specific form?
Adjectives in Icelandic must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe. Here, sekur (guilty) describes maðurinn (the man), which is a masculine, singular noun in the nominative case. Therefore, the adjective takes the masculine nominative singular form sekur. If the subject were a woman (konan), it would be the feminine form sek.
Can you break down the word fingrafarið?
It is a compound noun made from fingur (finger) and the neuter noun far (a mark or print). Because far is a neuter noun, the entire compound is neuter. To say 'the fingerprint', we attach the neuter nominative singular definite article suffix -ið, resulting in fingrafarið.
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