Questions & Answers about Konan keyrir um skóginn.
Doesn't um usually mean "about"? Why does it mean "through" here?
Um is a very versatile preposition! When talking about motion or moving around a physical space, it often translates to "through", "around", or "all over". Here, driving um skóginn means she is driving through the forest.
Which case does um trigger in this sentence?
It triggers the accusative case. In this lesson on motion and direction, you will see that the preposition um always forces the following noun into the accusative case.
The dictionary form of "forest" is skógur. How does it become skóginn here?
Two things happen. First, the preposition um forces the masculine noun skógur into the accusative case, dropping the -ur to become skóg. Second, because we are talking about "the" forest, we add the definite article suffix. For masculine accusative words, that suffix is -inn. Combining skóg and -inn gives us skóginn.
The translation says "is driving", but isn't keyrir just the simple present tense?
Yes! Icelandic does not have a separate present continuous tense like English does. The single present tense word keyrir can mean either "drives" or "is driving", depending entirely on what makes sense in context.
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