Breakdown of Svo fer kennarinn á hótelið.
kennarinn
the teacher
fara
to go
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
hótelið
the hotel
svo
then / so (therefore)
Questions & Answers about Svo fer kennarinn á hótelið.
Why does the sentence say fer kennarinn instead of kennarinn fer?
This is the Verb-Second (V2) rule in action! In Icelandic, the verb must almost always be the second piece of information in a main clause. Because the sentence starts with the adverb Svo (Then), the verb fer (goes) has to come immediately after it to stay in the second position. The subject kennarinn (the teacher) gets pushed to the third spot.
How does kennarinn translate to "the teacher"?
In Icelandic, the word for "the" is attached to the end of the noun rather than being a separate word before it. The basic word for a teacher is kennari. Adding the definite suffix -nn makes it kennarinn (the teacher).
Why do we use á to mean "to" the hotel? Doesn't á mean "on"?
Yes, á normally translates to "on", but Icelandic uses prepositions differently depending on the destination. For public places, institutions, and venues like a hotel, a post office, or a cafe, you generally go á (on) them rather than using the usual word for "to".
Does the word hótelið change its form because of the preposition á?
It actually is in a special grammatical case here, even though it doesn't look like it! When you use á to show movement to a destination, the noun following it must be in the accusative case. Because hótel is a neuter noun, its accusative form is exactly identical to its basic dictionary form, so hótelið (the hotel) doesn't change its spelling.
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