Breakdown of Söngkonan ætlar ekki að vera trufluð af hljóðmanninum.
vera
to be
ekki
not
að
to (infinitive marker)
trufla
to disturb
ætla
to intend
söngkonan
the female singer
af
by (agent of a passive)
hljóðmaðurinn
the sound engineer
Questions & Answers about Söngkonan ætlar ekki að vera trufluð af hljóðmanninum.
Why do we use af here, and what case follows it?
In Icelandic passive sentences, the agent (the person doing the action) is introduced by the preposition af, which translates to "by" in this context. The preposition af always requires the following noun to be in the dative case, which is why we see the dative form hljóðmanninum instead of the nominative hljóðmaðurinn.
Why does the word for "disturbed" take the form trufluð?
In passive constructions with the verb vera (to be), the past participle must agree with the subject in gender and number. Since the subject söngkonan (the female singer) is feminine and singular, the past participle of trufla takes the feminine singular nominative form, which is trufluð.
Could I use mun instead of ætlar to say "is not going to be"?
How is the dative form hljóðmanninum constructed?
It is a compound of hljóð (sound) and maður (man or person) with the definite article attached. The dative singular of maður is manni. When you add the dative masculine singular definite article -num, the final -i of the noun drops out, leaving you with manninum.
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