Breakdown of Ég vil salatið en hún vill súpuna.
ég
I
hún
she
en
but
vilja
to want (to will, be willing)
súpan
the soup
salatið
the salad
Questions & Answers about Ég vil salatið en hún vill súpuna.
Does the word en (but) change the word order in the second half of the sentence?
No. En is a coordinating conjunction, just like og (and) and eða (or). It simply links two complete sentences together. Because of this, the second part keeps the normal word order: the subject (hún) comes right before the verb (vill).
Why is 'want' spelled vil for 'I', but vill for 'she'?
The verb vilja (to want) is irregular. For 'I' (ég), it is vil (with one L). For 'he/she/it' (hann/hún/það), it is vill (with two Ls). It is a tiny spelling difference that is very common to mix up!
I know súpa means 'soup'. Why is it súpuna here?
Two things are happening. First, the sentence says 'the soup', so we add the definite article to the end. Second, the soup is the object being wanted, so it takes the accusative case. For feminine words like súpa, the accusative form for 'the' ends in -na, giving us súpuna.
Why doesn't salatið (the salad) have a special accusative ending like the soup does?
Salat is a neuter word. Neuter words are very friendly to learners because their accusative form is exactly the same as their basic dictionary form! So salatið looks exactly the same whether it is the subject of a sentence or the object being wanted.
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