Breakdown of Varst þú kaldsveittur af því að þú þorðir ekki að spyrja hana?
vera
to be
þú
you
hún
she
ekki
not
að
to (infinitive marker)
spyrja
to ask
af því að
because
þora
to dare
kaldsveittur
in a cold sweat
Questions & Answers about Varst þú kaldsveittur af því að þú þorðir ekki að spyrja hana?
How does the verb þora connect to the action of asking in this sentence?
The verb þora (to dare to) is a verb of mental disposition. To connect it to the action you are daring to do, you must use the infinitive marker að. Even though the negative word ekki sits in between, the grammatical structure is þorðir ... að spyrja (dared to ask).
How can we tell the gender of the person being spoken to?
We can tell the speaker is talking to a male because the adjective kaldsveittur (cold-sweaty) ends in -ur, which is the masculine singular nominative ending. If the listener were female, the sentence would use kaldsveitt, and for a non-binary person, it would use the neuter form kaldsveitt.
Why does spyrja take the accusative pronoun hana here?
While many verbs of communication take the dative case for the person receiving the message, spyrja (to ask) is a notable exception. It always governs the accusative case for the person being asked.
How does the grammatical structure for 'in a cold sweat' differ between Icelandic and English here?
English uses a prepositional noun phrase (in a cold sweat), but Icelandic uses a single compound adjective: kaldsveittur, formed from kaldur (cold) and sveittur (sweaty). It functions as a standard adjective describing the subject directly.
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