Word
Við förum á fjallið í kvöld.
Meaning
We are going up the mountain tonight.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Við förum á fjallið í kvöld.
við
we
fara
to go
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
kvöldið
the evening
Questions & Answers about Við förum á fjallið í kvöld.
Why is fjallið in the accusative case here instead of the dative?
Because the verb förum (we go) shows motion towards a destination. When the preposition á describes movement to a place, the noun following it takes the accusative case. If we were already resting on the mountain, we would use the dative case instead.
The translation says "up the mountain", but doesn't á mean "on"?
Yes, á basically means "on" or "onto". Because this sentence involves motion (going onto the mountain), the most natural English translation is "going up the mountain".
Where is the word for "the" in fjallið?
In Icelandic, "the" isn't a separate word. It gets attached to the end of the noun! The base word is fjall (mountain), and adding the suffix -ið makes it fjallið (the mountain).
Why does förum translate to "are going" instead of just "go"?
Icelandic doesn't have a separate continuous tense (like "are going" or "is doing") for the present. The simple present tense förum can mean "we go", "we are going", and even "we will go" depending on the context!
Why does í kvöld mean "tonight"?