Breakdown of Lögreglan hlýtur að hafa ásakað saklausan mann.
maðurinn
the man
að
to (infinitive marker)
hafa
to have
lögreglan
the police
hljóta
to must
ásaka
to accuse
saklaus
innocent
Questions & Answers about Lögreglan hlýtur að hafa ásakað saklausan mann.
Why is hlýtur in the present tense if the sentence is about something that happened in the past?
When making a logical deduction about the past, Icelandic uses the present tense of hljóta (hlýtur) because you are making the conclusion right now. The past action is expressed by adding að hafa followed by the supine verb form (ásakað), matching the English structure "must have accused."
In English, "police" is often treated as plural. Why does it take the singular verb hlýtur here?
Why do we use the accusative form saklausan mann here?
The verb ásaka (to accuse) governs the accusative case for the person being accused. Therefore, maður changes to its accusative form mann, and the adjective gets the strong masculine accusative ending, becoming saklausan.
Since this is about the police, why use ásakað instead of kært?
ásaka means "to accuse" or "to suspect" in a general or moral sense. If the police had formally pressed legal charges against the man, you would use the verb kæra (to press charges / to sue), which would make the supine form kært.
Learn Lögreglan hlýtur að hafa ásakað saklausan mann 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