Breakdown of Ég ætla að selja húsið bráðum.
húsið
the house
ég
I
að
to (infinitive marker)
ætla
to intend
selja
to sell
bráðum
soon
Questions & Answers about Ég ætla að selja húsið bráðum.
Why is there an að before selja?
In Icelandic, the verb ætla (to intend) must be followed by að plus the infinitive form of the main verb. Here, ætla pairs with að selja to mean "going to sell". It works just like the English word "to" in "going to sell".
Doesn't ætla mean "to intend"? Why is it translated as "am going to"?
Yes, ætla literally means "to intend". However, in everyday Icelandic, it is the standard way to express future plans, perfectly matching the English phrase "am going to". Unlike English, the Icelandic future plan structure does not use a verb of movement like "go".
Why does the word for house, húsið, end in -ið here?
That -ið is the attached definite article, which means "the". In Icelandic, "the" is rarely a separate word before the noun; instead, it attaches to the end. So, hús means "a house", and húsið means "the house".
Is húsið in the accusative case because it is the object being sold?
Exactly! The verb selja (to sell) forces the object being sold into the accusative case. Because the word hús is a neuter noun, its accusative form looks identical to its basic dictionary form, so húsið does not change its spelling here.
Could I start the sentence with bráðum to say "Soon I am going to sell the house"?
You can, but remember that Icelandic has a strict "verb-second" rule. If you start the sentence with the adverb bráðum, the verb ætla must come immediately after it, pushing the pronoun ég to the third position: Bráðum ætla ég að selja húsið.
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