Breakdown of Sjáum við símann á veggnum?
við
we
sjá
to see
síminn
the telephone
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
veggurinn
the wall
Questions & Answers about Sjáum við símann á veggnum?
Why does this sentence start with the verb Sjáum?
In Icelandic, to turn a statement into a yes/no question, you swap the subject and the verb. The statement "We see" is Við sjáum, so the question "Do we see?" becomes Sjáum við. There is no extra "do" word like in English!
Why is "the phone" translated as símann instead of the dictionary form sími?
Because the phone is the direct object being seen, it needs to be in the accusative case. The basic word sími becomes síma in the accusative. To say "the phone", we attach the definite article ending, making it símann.
How is the word veggnum formed to mean "the wall"?
The basic dictionary word for "wall" is the masculine noun veggur. In the dative case, this drops the ending to become vegg. Because we are talking about a specific wall ("the wall"), we add the masculine dative definite suffix -num, resulting in veggnum.
Why does the word for wall have to be in the dative case here?
The preposition á (on) can take either the accusative or the dative case. It takes the dative case when it describes a fixed location where something already is. Since the phone is simply resting on the wall, á forces the noun into the dative case.
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