Breakdown of Mig langar að drekka vatnið.
mig
me (acc)
langa
to want
að
to (infinitive marker)
drekka
to drink
vatnið
the water
Questions & Answers about Mig langar að drekka vatnið.
Why does this sentence start with Mig instead of Ég?
The verb langa (to want/long for) uses a quirky subject. Instead of the normal subject ég (I), it forces the person who wants something into the accusative case, which is mig (me). Think of it literally as 'It longs me'.
If I wanted to say 'we want', would the verb langar change?
No, it stays exactly the same! Because the grammatical subject is technically a hidden 'it' (as in 'it longs me'), the verb is stuck in the 'it' form (langar). To say 'we want', you only change the pronoun to Okkur langar.
What is the word að doing in front of drekka?
The word að works just like the English word 'to' before a verb. Because you are saying 'want to drink', you use að plus the infinitive (dictionary form) of the verb, which is drekka.
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