Breakdown of Ég myndi panta meira ef þröngin væri bara aðeins minni.
vera
to be
ég
I
lítill
small / a little (small amount)
bara
just / only
panta
to order
mikill
great, much (adjective: snjórinn er mikill)
ef
if
aðeins
slightly
myndu
would (plural)
þröngin
the crowd
Questions & Answers about Ég myndi panta meira ef þröngin væri bara aðeins minni.
Why is bara used here if aðeins already means 'a little'?
This sentence is a great example of bara acting as a mitigating discourse particle. While it literally translates to 'just', its real job here is to soften the speaker's complaint about the crowd. Paired with aðeins, it makes the hypothetical condition sound modest, polite, and less whiny or demanding.
Why does the second half of the sentence use væri instead of the present subjunctive?
This is a hypothetical or 'unreal' conditional sentence. Because the speaker is imagining a situation that is contrary to reality (the crowd is currently too big), Icelandic requires the past subjunctive væri in the ef (if) clause to match the conditional myndi panta (would order) in the main clause.
What kind of crowd does þröngin refer to compared to other words for crowd?
Þröng specifically implies a tight, physically dense squeeze of people. It is related to the adjective þröngur (narrow, tight). While you could use a general word like mannfjöldi (multitude or crowd), þröngin perfectly captures the claustrophobic feeling of trying to order at a busy bar.
Why is minni used instead of minna for 'smaller'?
Minni is the comparative form of the adjective lítill (small), and it must agree with the noun it describes. Since þröngin (the crowd) is a feminine noun in the nominative case, the adjective takes the feminine nominative comparative form, which is minni.
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