Breakdown of Þau voru nærri því soltin til dauða í skóginum.
vera
to be
þau
they (n)
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
skógurinn
the forest
því
it (dative)
til
to
dauðinn
the death
nærri
nearly
svelta
to starve
Questions & Answers about Þau voru nærri því soltin til dauða í skóginum.
How does nærri því work with soltin to mean "almost starved"?
The phrase vera nærri því (literally "to be near it") followed by a past participle in the nominative case is a common way to express that a past action almost happened. It functions conceptually as them being "near to" the state of being starved.
Why is the past participle exactly in the form soltin?
When using this vera nærri því + past participle structure, the participle acts like an adjective describing the subject. Since the subject Þau is a neuter plural pronoun, the participle must be in the neuter plural nominative form, which is soltin (from the verb svelta, meaning to starve).
Why do we say til dauða instead of just using the dictionary form dauði?
The preposition til always forces the noun that follows it into the genitive case. The noun dauði (death) is a weak masculine noun, and its genitive form is dauða.
Could I say í skóginn here if they had wandered into the forest?
No, because the sentence describes a state happening within a location, not movement into it. The preposition í takes the dative case for static locations, giving us í skóginum. You would only use the accusative í skóginn with a verb of motion to say they went into the forest.
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