Breakdown of Krakkarnir geisla af spennu.
krakkinn
the kid
af
from (out of, cause)
geisla
to radiate
spennan
the excitement
Questions & Answers about Krakkarnir geisla af spennu.
Why do we use af here when the English translation says 'with'?
In Icelandic, af (which requires the dative case here) is often used to express the cause or source of a physical or emotional state. While English uses 'with' (like 'beaming with excitement' or 'shaking with fear'), Icelandic uses af to show that the excitement is the source of the beaming. Using með here would sound like the kids are physically carrying an object called 'excitement'.
I thought spenna meant 'tension' or 'voltage'. Can it mean 'excitement' too?
Yes! While spenna does mean tension, stress, or electrical voltage, it is also the standard word for positive suspense or excitement. If you want to say you are excited, you use the related adjective and say ég er spennt(ur).
Does the verb geisla always need the preposition af?
Not always, but they are a very common pair. Að geisla means 'to radiate' or 'to beam'. When someone is radiating a specific emotion or quality, you use geisla af followed by the dative. If you are talking about a physical light source radiating, you might just use geisla on its own.
Why does the word for excitement end in a -u here?
The dictionary form of the word is spenna. It is a weak feminine noun, which means it ends in -a in the nominative singular, but changes to -u in the accusative, dative, and genitive singular. Because the preposition af requires the dative case, the word becomes spennu.
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