Breakdown of Kveikjarinn er ómissandi ef þú ætlar að elda úti.
vera
to be
þú
you
úti
outside
að
to (infinitive marker)
ætla
to intend
elda
to cook
ef
if
kveikjarinn
the lighter
ómissandi
indispensable
Questions & Answers about Kveikjarinn er ómissandi ef þú ætlar að elda úti.
Why doesn't ómissandi change its ending to match the masculine subject kveikjarinn?
Words ending in -andi, like ómissandi (indispensable) or spennandi (exciting), are present participles functioning as adjectives. In Icelandic, these adjectives are indeclinable, meaning they never change form regardless of the gender, number, or case of the noun they describe.
Could I use út instead of úti here since I am going out to cook?
No, because úti implies a stationary location (being outside), whereas út implies motion toward a destination (going outside). Even though the sentence implies you might go outside, the cooking itself happens while you are already out there, so the stationary adverb úti is required.
Does ætlar að elda just mean 'plan to cook', or is it the standard way to express the future tense here?
While ætla literally means 'to intend' or 'to plan', using ætla að plus an infinitive is the most common way to express the future tense in Icelandic when a person is actively going to do something. Here, it naturally translates to 'are going to cook'.
The dictionary form for 'lighter' is kveikjari. How does the definite article attach to this weak masculine noun?
For weak masculine nouns ending in -i, you drop that final -i before adding the masculine definite article -inn. Therefore, kveikjari becomes kveikjarinn, avoiding a double 'i'.
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