Breakdown of Hann vill frekar krafsa í klórutréð heldur en að sofa.
hann
he
sofa
to sleep
að
to (infinitive marker)
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
vilja
to want (to will, be willing)
frekar
rather
heldur en
rather than
krafsa
to paw
klórutréð
the scratching post
Questions & Answers about Hann vill frekar krafsa í klórutréð heldur en að sofa.
Why do we need both frekar and heldur en here? Doesn't that mean "rather... rather than"?
In Icelandic, it is standard to pair the adverb frekar (rather / preferably) with the conjunction phrase heldur en (than / rather than) to express a clear preference. While heldur en handles the "than" part of the comparison, placing frekar earlier emphasizes the choice, much like saying "He prefers to paw at the scratching post rather than sleep."
Why does krafsa take the preposition í?
The verb krafsa (to paw, scrape, or scratch) commonly uses the preposition í (in/at) to indicate what is being pawed at. When describing an action directed at a target, í takes the accusative case.
How can we tell the case of klórutréð?
Klórutré (scratching post) is a neuter noun, and neuter nouns have identical forms in the nominative and accusative cases. Because the action of pawing is directed at the post, the preposition í triggers the accusative case here. The suffix -ð is simply the neuter singular definite article.
Why is there an að before sofa but not before krafsa?
The verb vilja (to want), which gives us vill, is a modal verb that attaches directly to an infinitive without the marker að. That is why we have vill ... krafsa. However, the second verb follows the comparative conjunction heldur en (rather than), which usually resets the grammatical structure and requires the standard infinitive marker að for the following verb (að sofa).
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