Breakdown of Við skulum sleppa lokaatriðinu.
við
we
sleppa
to let go, to escape / to avoid / get out of
skulu
to shall / to promise to
lokaatriðið
the final act
Questions & Answers about Við skulum sleppa lokaatriðinu.
Why is lokaatriðinu in the dative case here?
The verb sleppa governs the dative case when it takes an object. Because we are skipping 'the final act', the object lokaatriðið must change to its dative form, lokaatriðinu.
I've seen sleppa mean 'to escape'. How do we know it means 'to skip' here?
The meaning of sleppa shifts depending on whether it has an object. When used without an object, it means 'to escape' or 'to get away'. However, when it takes an object in the dative case, like it does in this sentence, it means 'to let go of', 'to drop', or 'to skip' something.
How does við skulum translate to 'let's'?
The phrase við skulum followed by an infinitive verb (here, sleppa) is the standard way to say 'let's do something' in Icelandic. Skulum is the first-person plural form of the auxiliary verb skulu (shall/must), so literally it means 'we shall'.
How is the word lokaatriðinu formed?
It is a compound word made of the prefix loka- (final or closing) and the neuter noun atriði (act, scene, or item). To say 'the final act' in the dative case, we attach the dative neuter definite article -nu to the end, resulting in lokaatriðinu.
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