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Questions & Answers about Ég held það.
Wait, isn't the infinitive of this verb halda? Why is it held here?
Yes, the infinitive is halda. This is a strong verb, and many strong verbs change their main vowel in the singular forms (I, you, he/she/it) of the present tense. Here, the a in halda shifts to an e, making it ég held.
Does the vowel stay as an e for plural pronouns like "we" and "they"?
No, the vowel change only happens in the singular! For "you" and "he/she/it", the vowel stays e (þú heldur, hann/hún/það heldur). In the plural, strong verbs drop the vowel shift (for example, þið haldið and þau halda go back to the original a).
I thought halda meant "to hold". Why does it translate to "think" in this sentence?
Halda does literally mean "to hold", but it is extremely common to use it to mean "to think", "to believe", or "to have an opinion". It is similar to saying "I hold this opinion" in English.
Why does það translate to "so" here instead of "it"?
Literally, this sentence means "I hold it" (or "I think it"). While English speakers say "I think so", Icelandic expresses the exact same idea by using það ("it").