Breakdown of Við leitum að starfsmanni sem sé áreiðanlegur og skipulagður.
vera
to be
og
and
við
we
sem
who / which / that
starfsmaðurinn
the employee
að
for (searching for)
leita
to search
áreiðanlegur
reliable
skipulagður
organized
Questions & Answers about Við leitum að starfsmanni sem sé áreiðanlegur og skipulagður.
Why is the verb sé (subjunctive) used here instead of er (indicative)?
We use the subjunctive sé because the sentence describes an indefinite, non-specific person. The speaker is looking for any employee who fits these traits, not a specific person they already know. This is how the subjunctive is used in indefinite relative clauses. If they were looking for a specific employee they knew was out there, they would use the indicative er.
If starfsmanni is in the dative case, why are the adjectives áreiðanlegur and skipulagður in the nominative case?
The relative particle sem (who/that) acts as the subject of the new clause. Because it functions as the subject, the verb sé and the descriptive adjectives that follow it reset to the nominative case. The adjectives still agree with the gender and number of the antecedent (masculine singular, for starfsmaður), but their case is dictated by their role in the new clause, completely ignoring the dative case of the main clause.
Why is starfsmaður in the dative case (starfsmanni) here?
The phrasal verb að leita að (to look for) governs the dative case. The preposition að forces the noun that follows it into the dative.
Could I say this without the preposition að?
Yes, but the grammar would change. The verb að leita on its own governs the genitive case, so it would become við leitum starfsmanns. However, using leita að with the dative case is much more common in modern, everyday spoken Icelandic.
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