Breakdown of Við kaupum bara kaffið og brauðið.
og
and
bara
just / only
við
we
kaupa
to buy
brauðið
the bread
kaffið
the coffee
Questions & Answers about Við kaupum bara kaffið og brauðið.
The lesson is about Group 2 and 3 verbs, but kaupum ends in -um. Which group is it in?
The verb is að kaupa (to buy). It belongs to Group 2 because it uses an -i- in the singular forms (like ég kaupi, þú kaupir). However, the við (we) form is very friendly in Icelandic: it almost always ends in -um, no matter which group the verb belongs to!
Why is 'the coffee' kaffið but 'the bread' is brauðið? Why does one have an extra 'i'?
In Icelandic, the word for 'the' is attached directly to the end of the noun. Brauð ends in a consonant, so we add -ið to make it brauðið. Because kaffi already ends in a vowel, we just add the -ð to make kaffið so we don't end up with an awkward double 'i'.
Why is there no word for 'are' in the Icelandic sentence for 'We are just buying'?
Icelandic doesn't have a separate 'is/are doing' form (called the present continuous in English). The single verb kaupum covers both 'we buy' and 'we are buying'. You just use the regular present tense.
Are kaffið and brauðið in the accusative case here since they are the objects being bought?
Yes, they are! Because they are the direct objects of the verb kaupa, they must be in the accusative case. But you got lucky here: both kaffi and brauð are neuter words. Neuter words always look exactly the same in the accusative case as they do in their basic dictionary form.
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