Breakdown of Ég er að reyna að hlusta á líkamann í nótt.
vera
to be
ég
I
hlusta
to listen
að
to (infinitive marker)
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
reyna
to try (attempt)
nóttin
the night
á
to/at (with verbs of perception: hlusta á, horfa á)
líkaminn
the body
Questions & Answers about Ég er að reyna að hlusta á líkamann í nótt.
Why does this sentence use í nótt instead of a phrase with á?
Because the action is happening right now. As the current lesson covers, we use í + Accusative for a part of the day that is in the present (ongoing) or the recent past. Since the speaker is currently doing this (er að reyna), í nótt means tonight in the immediate, ongoing sense. If it were a habitual action, like listening to your body every night, you would use a phrase with á instead.
The English translation says my body, but why is there no possessive pronoun like minn here?
In Icelandic, when referring to your own body parts, clothing, or close personal items, it is most natural to just use the definite article if the context makes ownership obvious. Here, líkamann (the body) clearly implies my body because the subject of the sentence is ég.
Why is líkamann in the accusative case?
The verb hlusta (to listen) requires the preposition á, which in this context governs the accusative case for the object being listened to. The weak masculine noun líkami becomes líkama in the accusative, and adding the definite article makes it líkamann.
Why are there two instances of að in að reyna að hlusta?
They serve two different grammatical purposes. The first að forms the present continuous tense alongside the verb to be (ég er að reyna means I am trying). The second að simply introduces the next infinitive verb, functioning exactly like the English to in trying to listen (reyna að hlusta).
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