Breakdown of Er tófan sjálf úti á veröndinni eða inni í bakgarðinum?
vera
to be
úti
outside
inni
inside
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
eða
or
sjálfur
self, oneself
tófan
the arctic fox
bakgarðurinn
the backyard
veröndin
the patio
Questions & Answers about Er tófan sjálf úti á veröndinni eða inni í bakgarðinum?
Why do we use úti and inni here instead of út and inn?
Úti (out) and inni (in/inside) are the stationary forms of these adverbs, used because the fox is just located there, not actively moving outside or inside. If the fox were running out to the patio, you would use the motion adverbs út and inn instead and change the following nouns to the accusative case.
Why are veröndinni and bakgarðinum in the dative case?
The prepositions á and í govern the dative case when they describe a stationary position (where something is). If the sentence described movement towards these places (where something is going), they would trigger the accusative case instead.
Why is the word for 'itself' translated as sjálf here?
The pronoun for 'self' has to agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it emphasizes. Since tófan (the fox) is a feminine noun in the nominative singular, sjálf takes the feminine nominative singular form to match it.
I've learned refur for fox. Is tófa a different animal?
They both refer to the Arctic fox, which is native to Iceland. Refur is a masculine noun for fox in general, while tófa is a feminine noun. Tófa can specifically mean a female fox (a vixen), but in everyday Icelandic, it's very commonly used to refer to any wild Arctic fox regardless of gender.
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