Breakdown of Í fréttunum kom fram að veðrið yrði slæmt.
veðrið
the weather
slæmur
bad
verða
to become; will be
fréttin
the news
koma fram
to be stated, to emerge (fram kemur að ...)
Questions & Answers about Í fréttunum kom fram að veðrið yrði slæmt.
Why is yrði used here instead of a normal past tense verb?
yrði is the past subjunctive of verða (to become / will be). It is used here because of reported speech (indirect discourse). When reporting what someone said or what was stated, Icelandic uses the subjunctive mood. Since the main verb (kom) is in the past tense, the reported verb must be in the past subjunctive.
Why do we use a form of verða (yrði) instead of vera (væri) for "would be"?
In Icelandic, verða is heavily used to talk about future states ("will be"), especially for weather forecasts. The original news report likely said "Veðrið verður slæmt" (The weather will be bad). When shifted into past reported speech, verður changes to its past subjunctive equivalent, yrði.
What does the phrasal verb koma fram mean in this context?
Literally, koma fram means "to come forward" or "to emerge." In the context of news, reports, surveys, or meetings, it is a very common phrase used to mean "to be stated," "to be reported," or "to come to light."
The English translation starts with "It was stated...", so why isn't there a dummy subject like það in the Icelandic sentence?
If the sentence followed standard word order, it would be "Það kom fram í fréttunum að..." with það acting as the dummy "it". However, because this sentence moves the prepositional phrase (Í fréttunum) to the front for emphasis, Icelandic grammar requires the verb (kom) to come second, and the dummy það is completely dropped.
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