Breakdown of Forstjórann vantar stjórnanda sem hafi mikla fagmennsku.
hafa
to have
mikill
great, much (adjective: snjórinn er mikill)
vanta
to need (to lack)
sem
who / which / that
stjórnandinn
the manager
forstjórinn
the CEO
fagmennskan
the professionalism
Questions & Answers about Forstjórann vantar stjórnanda sem hafi mikla fagmennsku.
Why is hafi in the subjunctive here instead of the indicative hefur?
This is because the relative clause starting with sem describes an indefinite, hypothetical person. The CEO is looking for a manager with great professionalism, but we do not know who this person is or if they even exist yet. If the sentence referred to a specific, known manager who already works there, it would use the indicative hefur.
Why is Forstjórann in the accusative case when it is the one doing the needing?
It is because of the verb vanta (to need, to lack). This is an impersonal verb that requires its logical subject (the person who needs something) to be in the accusative case. It also takes an accusative object, which is why stjórnanda (a manager) is in the accusative too.
Why does the word for manager, stjórnanda, end in -a here?
It is the accusative form of the weak masculine noun stjórnandi. Nouns ending in -andi usually describe a person doing an action (similar to the -er suffix in English). They take an -a ending in the accusative, dative, and genitive singular cases.
If I wanted to use the verb þurfa instead of vanta to say 'needs', how would the start of the sentence change?
You would say Forstjórinn þarf stjórnanda.... Unlike vanta, the verb þurfa takes a standard nominative subject, so Forstjórann (accusative) must change to Forstjórinn (nominative). The rest of the sentence would stay exactly the same.
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