Breakdown of Fyrst var forritið flókið en uppfærslan er reyndar mjög notendavæn.
vera
to be
en
but
mjög
very
fyrst
first (adverb)
forritið
the program
flókinn
complicated
reyndar
actually, in fact
notendavænn
user-friendly
uppfærslan
the update
Questions & Answers about Fyrst var forritið flókið en uppfærslan er reyndar mjög notendavæn.
Could we use að vísu instead of reyndar here?
Yes, but it changes the nuance slightly. Reyndar simply means "actually" or "as a matter of fact," presenting a pleasant contrast to the complicated original program. If you used að vísu ("admittedly"), it would sound like you're reluctantly conceding a point—perhaps as if you were in the middle of complaining about the software overall.
Why is reyndar placed after the verb er?
In Icelandic main clauses, the conjugated verb (here, er) almost always takes the second position. Because the subject uppfærslan takes the first slot, er must come second. Sentence adverbs and discourse markers like reyndar typically slot in right after the verb.
Why does the first clause say Fyrst var forritið instead of Fyrst forritið var?
This is a great reminder of the V2 (verb-second) rule. Because the adverb Fyrst (at first) occupies the first position in the sentence, the verb var must immediately follow it. This forces the subject forritið to invert and take the third position.
How is the word notendavæn built?
It's a combination of notenda (the genitive plural of notandi, meaning "of users") and the adjective vænn (nice or friendly). The -vænn suffix is the standard way to express "-friendly" in Icelandic, as seen in words like umhverfisvænn (eco-friendly). It takes the feminine form -væn here to agree with the feminine noun uppfærslan.
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