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Skeljarnar voru alls staðar þegar við gengum um strandlengjuna.

Skeljarnar voru alls staðar þegar við gengum um strandlengjuna.
The shells were everywhere when we walked along the coastline.
From Lesson 424:Indefinite spatial location (einhvers staðar, alls staðar, hvergi)·Icelandic

Breakdown of Skeljarnar voru alls staðar þegar við gengum um strandlengjuna.

vera
to be
við
we
ganga
to walk
um
around
þegar
when
skelin
the shell
alls staðar
everywhere
strandlengjan
the coastline

Questions & Answers about Skeljarnar voru alls staðar þegar við gengum um strandlengjuna.

Why is alls staðar written as two separate words to mean "everywhere"?
It is literally a fossilized genitive phrase meaning "of all place" (alls is the genitive of allt, and staðar is the genitive of staður). Even though it is two words, it acts as a single, fixed adverb for static location, meaning it never changes form to match gender, case, or number.
Since gengum is a verb of motion, shouldn't we use a directional adverb instead of the static alls staðar?
No, because the shells themselves are stationary. The adverb alls staðar describes where the shells were located (Skeljarnar voru...), not the direction of your walking. If you were physically scattering shells everywhere as you walked, you would need a directional motion adverb instead.
Why does the preposition um take the accusative case in um strandlengjuna? I thought it meant "about".
While um often means "about" in the context of talking or thinking, when combined with a physical motion verb like ganga (to walk), it translates to "around," "through," or "along." In all these usages, um always governs the accusative case, changing the feminine noun strandlengja to strandlengju (and strandlengjuna with the attached article).
What is the base form of skeljarnar? The -jar ending looks a bit tricky.
The singular indefinite form is skel (shell), which is a feminine noun. While many feminine nouns simply add -ar or -ir in the plural, skel is one of the nouns that inserts a 'j', becoming skeljar. Adding the definite plural suffix -nar gives us skeljarnar.
Could we use hvenær instead of þegar to say "when we walked"?
No, hvenær is strictly a question word used for asking when something happens. To connect two clauses and say that one thing happened at the time another thing happened, you must always use the conjunction þegar.

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