Breakdown of Ef saltvatnið væri kaldara myndi þyngdarleysið ekki vera neitt þægilegt.
vera
to be
ekki
not
kaldur
cold
ef
if
munu
will
þægilegur
comfortable
neitt
at all
saltvatnið
the saltwater
þyngdarleysið
the weightlessness
Questions & Answers about Ef saltvatnið væri kaldara myndi þyngdarleysið ekki vera neitt þægilegt.
How is neitt working in this sentence? I usually see it meaning 'anything'.
While neitt often acts as a pronoun meaning 'anything', here it is a negative polarity degree adverb modifying the adjective þægilegt. When paired with a negative word like ekki, it means 'at all'. So ekki vera neitt þægilegt means 'not be comfortable at all'. In this role, it is indeclinable and never changes its form.
Why do we use væri and myndi here instead of the regular past tense?
This is a hypothetical conditional sentence ('If X were..., Y would be...'). Because the saltwater isn't actually colder, Icelandic requires the subjunctive mood. væri is the past subjunctive of vera (to be), and myndi is the past subjunctive of munu (will/would).
How is the word þyngdarleysið constructed?
It is a compound word. þyngdar is the genitive (possessive) case of þyngd (weight). leysi is a neuter suffix meaning 'lack of' or '-lessness', and the final -ð is the attached definite article ('the'). Together, they form 'the weightlessness'.
Why does the comparative adjective kaldara end in -a?
kaldara is the comparative form of the adjective kaldur (cold). It must agree with the noun it describes, which is the neuter noun saltvatnið. In Icelandic, the comparative form for both masculine and neuter adjectives ends in -a (while feminine ends in -i).
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