Learn Icelandic: Það er mikilvægt að djúpsteikja beikonið sem hraðast. - It is important to deep-fry the bacon as fast as possible.

In Icelandic, combining sem with a superlative word creates an absolute superlative. While it literally translates to "as fastest," this specific structure is the standard way to express doing something "as [blank] as possible." You will see this often with other words, such as sem fyrst for "as soon as possible."

Why is the superlative hraðast used here rather than a masculine adjective form like hraðastur?

Because it describes how the action of the verb djúpsteikja (to deep-fry) is performed, making it an adverb rather than an adjective. In Icelandic, the superlative form of most adverbs ends in -ast and never changes for gender or number.

Why is mikilvægt in the neuter form instead of the default masculine mikilvægur?

The adjective must agree with the subject of the sentence. Here, the subject is the dummy pronoun það (it), which is always neuter singular. Therefore, the adjective takes the neuter singular ending -t.

Does the prefix djúp- change how the verb steikja interacts with its object, beikonið?