Breakdown of Hann er að kaupa salatið og ég er að kaupa súpuna.
vera
to be
og
and
ég
I
hann
he
kaupa
to buy
að
to (infinitive marker)
súpan
the soup
salatið
the salad
Questions & Answers about Hann er að kaupa salatið og ég er að kaupa súpuna.
Does the word order change in the second half of the sentence after og?
No, og (and) is a coordinating conjunction. This means it connects two full sentences without messing with their internal structure. The second half keeps the standard subject-verb order: ég (I) comes first, followed directly by the verb er (am).
Why do we use að here instead of just saying hann er kaupa?
In Icelandic, to say someone is doing something right now, you use a form of the verb vera (to be) followed by að and the infinitive (dictionary form) of the action verb. This is called the continuous tense. Without að, the sentence would be grammatically incorrect, similar to saying 'he is buy' in English.
Why is the word for 'the soup' súpuna? Doesn't the basic word end in an 'a'?
Yes, the basic word is súpa. However, the verb kaupa (to buy) forces the object being bought into the accusative case. For a feminine noun like súpa, the -a ending changes to -u (súpu). Then, to say 'the soup', we attach the feminine accusative definite article -na to the end, resulting in súpuna.
Why doesn't the ending of salatið (the salad) change in the same way?
Salat is a neuter noun, and neuter nouns are very predictable here. They have the exact same form in the accusative case (when they are the receiving object) as they do in the nominative case (when they are the subject). You just add the neuter definite article -ið to the base word salat to get salatið.
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