Breakdown of Ég er vanur að fljóta í saltvatninu og mér er ekki neitt kalt.
vera
to be
og
and
ég
I
ekki
not
mér
me (dative)
að
to (infinitive marker)
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
kaldur
cold
vanur
used to
neitt
at all
fljóta
to float
saltvatnið
the saltwater
Questions & Answers about Ég er vanur að fljóta í saltvatninu og mér er ekki neitt kalt.
How is neitt being used here to mean "at all"?
In this sentence, neitt acts as a negative polarity degree adverb modifying the adjective kalt. Paired with ekki, it emphasizes the negative to mean "not at all." When used as a degree adverb before an adjective or another adverb, neitt is completely indeclinable, meaning it doesn't change form to match case or gender.
Why does the second half of the sentence switch to mér instead of keeping ég as the subject?
Feeling cold is expressed with an impersonal construction in Icelandic. The person experiencing the temperature goes into the dative case (mér). If you were to say ég er kaldur, it would mean that your personality is cold, or that your physical body is cold to the touch, rather than meaning that you personally feel cold.
If the speaker is masculine, as shown by vanur, why is the adjective kalt in the neuter form?
While vanur agrees with the masculine nominative subject ég, the adjective kalt is part of the impersonal construction mér er kalt. In impersonal constructions with a dative subject, the adjective always defaults to the neuter singular form, regardless of the actual gender of the person experiencing the feeling.
Why is saltvatninu in the dative case after í?
The preposition í governs the dative case when it describes a stationary location or state, like floating around in the water. If the sentence described movement from the outside to the inside, such as jumping into the water, í would take the accusative case instead.
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