Breakdown of Hyllingin virðist vera jafn raunveruleg og raunveruleikinn.
vera
to be
og
and
jafn
as, equally (as in "as tall as")
raunverulegur
real
raunveruleikinn
the reality
virðast
to seem (general impression)
hyllingin
the mirage
Questions & Answers about Hyllingin virðist vera jafn raunveruleg og raunveruleikinn.
How does the verb virðast affect the grammatical case of Hyllingin and raunveruleg?
This is a classic example of subject raising. The verb virðist (seems) takes the nominative subject Hyllingin. Because the infinitive verb is vera (to be), it links the subject to the adjective raunveruleg. Therefore, the adjective stays in the nominative case and must agree in gender and number (feminine singular) with the subject.
Why is the verb virðist in the middle voice with an -st ending?
The active verb virða means to respect or to evaluate. By adding the -st ending to make it middle voice, the meaning changes completely to "to seem" or "to appear." This is a very common pattern where the middle voice creates a new, related meaning rather than just making the verb passive.
Why is it jafn raunveruleg og instead of using eins og for the comparison?
While eins og is the most common way to say "like" or "as" between nouns, we use jafn (equally) right before an adjective to express "just as [adjective] as". So jafn raunveruleg og literally translates to "equally real as".
If I wanted to say "The mirage seems to ME to be just as real", where would I put the pronoun?
You would add the person experiencing it in the dative case immediately after the verb. The sentence would be: Hyllingin virðist mér vera jafn raunveruleg og raunveruleikinn. Notice that the subject (Hyllingin) and the adjective (raunveruleg) remain in the nominative case, even though a dative pronoun has been inserted.
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