Breakdown of Ég veit ekki hvort við finnum starfsmann sem sé lausnamiðaður.
vera
to be
ég
I
ekki
not
við
we
finna
to find
vita
to know (a fact, information)
sem
who / which / that
starfsmaðurinn
the employee
hvort
whether
lausnamiðaður
solution-oriented
Questions & Answers about Ég veit ekki hvort við finnum starfsmann sem sé lausnamiðaður.
Why is sé used here instead of er?
This is the core of the current lesson! The relative clause sem sé lausnamiðaður describes an employee who might not even exist. Because the main clause expresses doubt with Ég veit ekki hvort... (I don't know whether...), the existence of this specific person is hypothetical or indefinite. In Icelandic, describing an unknown or hypothetical person in a relative clause triggers the subjunctive (sé) instead of the indicative (er).
Could I use ef instead of hvort since they both can translate to 'if' in English?
No, you must use hvort here. English speakers often use 'if' for both conditions ('If it rains...') and indirect questions ('I don't know if we will...'). Icelandic strictly separates these. Because 'I don't know whether/if we will find an employee' is an indirect question, you must use hvort. Ef is strictly reserved for conditional 'if'.
Why does the Icelandic sentence use the present tense finnum when the English translation says 'will find'?
Icelandic lacks a dedicated, single-word future tense and frequently relies on the present tense to express future actions, letting the context make the timing clear. While you could technically use the auxiliary verb munu and say hvort við munum finna, using just the present tense finnum is much more natural and common in everyday speech.
How is the compound adjective lausnamiðaður formed?
It is made by combining lausna and miðaður. Lausna is the genitive plural of the feminine noun lausn (solution), meaning 'of solutions'. Miðaður is a past participle functioning as an adjective, meaning 'aimed' or 'oriented' (from the verb miða). Together, they literally mean 'aimed at solutions'.
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