Breakdown of Bæði haustið og veturinn nálgast og ég óttast kuldann.
og
and
ég
I
haustið
the autumn
veturinn
the winter
kuldinn
the cold
bæði
both (bæði ... og)
nálgast
to approach
óttast
to fear
Questions & Answers about Bæði haustið og veturinn nálgast og ég óttast kuldann.
Both nálgast and óttast end with -st. Are these verbs in the middle voice to show an action happening to themselves?
Not exactly. They are deponent verbs, meaning they only exist in this -st form and do not have an active counterpart. While the -st suffix usually creates the middle voice (like doing an action to oneself or each other), deponent verbs like nálgast (to approach) and óttast (to fear) use this form for entirely active meanings.
The subject of nálgast is plural (haustið og veturinn), so why does the verb look like a singular form?
It actually is the plural form! For -st verbs in the present tense, the third-person singular and the third-person plural are identical. So það nálgast (it approaches) and þau nálgast (they approach) share the exact same spelling and pronunciation.
Why is kuldann in the accusative case here?
It is the direct object of óttast. Even though óttast is a deponent -st verb, it still takes a direct object in the accusative case just like many regular active verbs do. You are directly fearing kuldann (the cold).
How does the phrase Bæði ... og ... work in this sentence?
This is the standard Icelandic correlative conjunction for 'Both ... and ...'. It brackets the two subjects, haustið and veturinn, linking them together before the verb.
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