Breakdown of Hvað sem er getur gerst á meðan við flökkum.
við
we
geta
to be able to
á meðan
while
gerast
to happen
hvað sem er
anything / whatever
flakka
to roam / to wander (travel aimlessly)
Questions & Answers about Hvað sem er getur gerst á meðan við flökkum.
If I needed to use hvað sem er as an object instead of a subject, would the whole phrase change?
Only the first word (hvað) declines based on its role in the sentence, while sem er stays exactly the same. Because hvað is a neuter pronoun, its nominative and accusative forms are identical. If it were the object of a verb requiring the dative case, it would change to hverju sem er. In this sentence, it is the subject, so it remains in the nominative.
Since hvað sem er encompasses 'anything', could I use a plural verb instead of the singular getur?
Doesn't the modal verb geta require the following verb to be in the supine (sagnbót)? Why doesn't gerst end in an '-i' or '-t' like most supine verbs?
gerst actually is the supine form! The verb here is the middle voice gerast (to happen). When forming the supine of middle voice verbs, the -st suffix is added to the active supine. The active supine of gera is gert, and when you add -st, the 't' is dropped for ease of pronunciation, leaving us with gerst.
Can I drop the á and just say meðan við flökkum?
Yes, absolutely. á meðan and meðan both mean 'while' and are completely interchangeable as conjunctions in this context. Using á meðan is just a slightly fuller form, but both are extremely common in everyday speech.
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