Breakdown of Er fólkið til í pastasalatið?
vera
to be
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
til
to
fólkið
the people
pastasalatið
the pasta salad
Questions & Answers about Er fólkið til í pastasalatið?
Why does the sentence use til í here, and what case does it require?
The phrase vera til í is an idiom meaning 'to be up for' or 'to be willing to have' something. The preposition í in this specific construction always forces the following noun into the accusative case, which is why we use the accusative form pastasalatið.
In English we say 'are the people', so why does this Icelandic sentence use the singular verb er?
Since pastasalatið looks exactly the same in both the nominative and accusative cases, how do we know which one it is here?
You are right that neuter nouns like salat (and therefore the compound pastasalat) do not change their form between the nominative and accusative cases. We know it is accusative purely because of the grammatical context: the idiom vera til í always requires an accusative object.
If I wanted to ask if the people are up for making the pasta salad, how would I adapt this sentence?
You would use the other half of this lesson's grammar rule: vera til í + að + infinitive verb. The sentence would become: Er fólkið til í að gera pastasalatið? (Are the people up for making the pasta salad?).
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