Breakdown of Ert þú hræddur við ókunnugt fólk?
vera
to be
þú
you
við
we
fólkið
the people
hræddur
afraid, frightened
ókunnugur
unfamiliar
Questions & Answers about Ert þú hræddur við ókunnugt fólk?
How would I answer 'Yes, I am' using a pro-form, and why don't we use gera það here?
You would answer Já, ég er það (Yes, I am it). Although this lesson covers gera það to replace active verbs, hræddur is an adjective describing a state, so we use the verb vera (to be) rather than gera (to do). In Icelandic, you cannot leave the verb hanging like in English ('Yes, I am'); you must replace the missing predicate with the pronoun það.
Why do we use the preposition við here instead of af for 'of'?
Adjectives of emotion or reaction often pair with specific prepositions that do not map directly to English. Being 'afraid of' something is always expressed as hræddur við. The preposition við governs the accusative case here, which is why ókunnugt fólk is in the accusative.
Would the word hræddur change if I were asking a woman this question?
Yes, it would. Hræddur is the masculine nominative singular form. If you are asking a woman, it must agree with her grammatical gender and become hrædd. For a non-binary person, you would use the neuter form hrætt.
Why is the adjective ókunnugt singular when fólk refers to multiple people?
The word fólk is grammatically a neuter singular noun in Icelandic, even though it refers to a collective group. Because it is singular, the adjective modifying it must also be singular. Since the preposition við triggers the accusative case, the adjective takes the neuter accusative singular form, resulting in ókunnugt.
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