Breakdown of Mér finnst óskiljanlegt að þetta stóra villidýr skuli vera hérna.
vera
to be
ég
I
stór
big
finnast
to find, to think
þessi
this (m/f)
að
that (conjunction)
hérna
here (colloquial, pointing)
skulu
to shall / to promise to
villidýrið
the wild animal
óskiljanlegur
incomprehensible
Questions & Answers about Mér finnst óskiljanlegt að þetta stóra villidýr skuli vera hérna.
Why use skuli vera here instead of just the subjunctive sé?
This is the modal of subjective surprise. When you express an emotion, a judgment, or shock about a fact—like calling it óskiljanlegt (incomprehensible)—Icelandic often adds the subjunctive of skulu before the infinitive. It emphasizes your emotional reaction, much like saying 'that it should be here' in English, rather than merely stating the fact.
What form is skuli exactly?
It is the present subjunctive form of the modal verb skulu (shall/should). Here it is conjugated in the third-person singular to match the subject þetta stóra villidýr.
Villidýr is a neuter noun, so why does the adjective take the form stóra instead of stórt?
Because it follows the demonstrative pronoun þetta (this). Whenever an adjective is preceded by a demonstrative pronoun, a possessive pronoun, or a free-standing definite article, it must use the weak declension. The weak form for a neuter singular adjective is stóra.
As a quick refresher, why does the sentence start with Mér finnst instead of Ég finn?
When you want to express a personal opinion or how you perceive something (like 'I find it incomprehensible'), you use the middle voice verb finnst with a dative subject (Mér). If you used the active verb finn with the nominative subject Ég, it would mean physically finding a lost object or feeling something with your physical senses.
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