Word
Við vöðum út í mýrina og sökkvum niður í drulluna.
Meaning
We are wading out into the bog and sinking down into the mud.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Við vöðum út í mýrina og sökkvum niður í drulluna.
og
and
við
we
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
út
out (motion outwards)
Questions & Answers about Við vöðum út í mýrina og sökkvum niður í drulluna.
Why do we use the accusative forms mýrina and drulluna after út í and niður í instead of the dative?
This shows how compound directional prepositions work. When you combine a place adverb like út (out) or niður (down) with a preposition like í (in/into), the case of the noun tells us if there is movement toward a destination. Because we are moving into the bog and sinking into the mud, we use the accusative. If we were already situated in the bog and just splashing around without a destination, we would use the dative (mýrinni).
What do the adverbs út and niður add to the sentence? Could we just say í mýrina and í drulluna?
You could just use í, but Icelandic relies heavily on directional adverbs to paint a precise picture of movement. út í gives the sense of venturing outwards into the open expanse of the bog, while niður í emphasizes the downward motion of sinking. Adding these adverbs makes the sentence much more descriptive and natural to an Icelandic speaker.
The verb is vöðum. What is the infinitive, and why does the vowel change here?