Breakdown of Amma er að baka kökuna.
vera
to be
að
to (infinitive marker)
kakan
the cake
amman
the grandmother
Questions & Answers about Amma er að baka kökuna.
How do we form the "is baking" part with er að baka?
This is the Icelandic way to say an action is happening right now! You use the verb vera (to be) — which is er (is) here — followed by the word að, and then the basic dictionary form (infinitive) of the action verb, baka (to bake).
Why is the word for "the cake" kökuna instead of kaka?
kaka means "a cake". To say "the cake", Icelandic adds the "the" part to the end of the word. Also, because the cake is the object having something done to it (being baked), it has to be in the "object" (accusative) form. For a feminine word like kaka, that makes it kökuna.
Why did the first letter of kaka change to ö in kökuna?
This is a very common vowel change in Icelandic. When a word has an "a", and we add an ending that contains a "u" (like the -una ending here), that "a" changes into an ö sound.
Why doesn't amma have a "the" ending attached to it?
Just like in English, when you are talking about family members like "Grandma" or "Mom", you usually treat the word like a name and don't add "the". So amma stands on its own here.