Breakdown of Nátthrafninn virðist vera afkastamikill í kvöld.
vera
to be
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
kvöldið
the evening
virðast
to seem (general impression)
nátthrafninn
the night owl
afkastamikill
productive
Questions & Answers about Nátthrafninn virðist vera afkastamikill í kvöld.
Why do we use í kvöld for "tonight" instead of using the preposition á?
In Icelandic, parts of the day use í + accusative to refer to a specific instance in the present, immediate past, or immediate future (like í kvöld for "tonight" or í dag for "today"). You use á + accusative for habitual actions, such as á kvöldin meaning "in the evenings".
Is nátthrafn the exact equivalent of the English idiom "night owl"?
Yes! It literally translates to "night raven" (nátt + hrafn), but it is used exactly like "night owl" in English to describe someone who stays up late.
Virðist ends in -st. Is this a middle voice verb, and how does its meaning relate to the base verb?
Yes, virðast is the middle voice of virða (to respect or to evaluate). While the active verb is about evaluating or respecting something, the middle voice virðast translates to "to seem" or "to appear". Middle voice verbs frequently take on a more subjective or passive nuance like this.
What determines the ending of the adjective afkastamikill here?
It means "productive" (literally "yield-great"), and it must agree with the subject nátthrafninn. Because hrafn is a masculine noun in the nominative case, the adjective takes the masculine nominative singular form. If the subject were a feminine noun, like uglan (the owl), it would drop the double L and become afkastamikil.
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