Breakdown of Sterkur straumur kemur einhvaðan að ofan.
koma
to come
sterkur
strong / spicy, hot (of food)
ofan
from above, down from
einhvaðan
from somewhere
straumurinn
the current
Questions & Answers about Sterkur straumur kemur einhvaðan að ofan.
Why do we use einhvaðan here instead of einhvers staðar?
Einhvaðan specifically means "from somewhere", indicating motion away from an unknown origin. Because the verb koma (to come) involves movement from a source, you must use a directional adverb. Einhvers staðar means "somewhere" in a stationary sense, which would not make sense here.
Since að usually means "to" or "towards", why does að ofan mean "from above"?
This is a classic trap for English speakers! In Icelandic, spatial adverbs ending in -an (like ofan, neðan, innan) already contain the meaning "from [direction]". The preposition að is idiomatically paired with them to describe the surface or direction something originates from. Think of að ofan as a fixed phrase meaning "from above".
If the current was flowing to an unknown place, how would the adverb change?
Could I just write einhvaðan ofan without the að?
It would sound unnatural. When indicating the direction from which something comes, words like ofan, neðan, and utan almost always take að in modern Icelandic. It functions as a set phrase (að ofan) modifying the general direction given by einhvaðan.
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