Questions & Answers about Kaupir þú teið eða kaupi ég kaffið?
Why does the second half say kaupi ég instead of ég kaupi?
Because it is a second question! The conjunction eða (or) links two independent parts of the sentence. Since both parts are asking a question, they both use the standard question word order: Verb followed by Subject. So we get Kaupir þú (Buy you) and kaupi ég (buy I).
The translation says "Are you buying", but doesn't kaupir just mean "buy"?
Exactly. Icelandic doesn't have a direct equivalent to the English "are buying" or "am buying" (the present continuous tense). You just use the standard present tense. Kaupir þú handles both "Do you buy" and "Are you buying" depending on the context.
Why does the verb change from kaupir to kaupi?
Verbs in Icelandic change their endings depending on who is doing the action. The verb is kaupir when matched with the subject þú (you), but drops the "r" to become kaupi when matched with ég (I).
Where is the word "the" in teið and kaffið?
In Icelandic, "the" isn't a separate word before the noun. Instead, it gets attached to the end of the word as a suffix. Te means tea, and adding the suffix gives us teið (the tea). The same happens with kaffi, which becomes kaffið (the coffee).
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