Breakdown of Mig langar í eina kartöflu og tvo lauka.
og
and
mig
me (acc)
langa
to want
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
einn
one
tveir
two
kartaflan
the potato
laukurinn
the onion
Questions & Answers about Mig langar í eina kartöflu og tvo lauka.
Why is it eina kartöflu instead of einn or eitt?
In Icelandic, the numbers 1 through 4 change to match the gender and case of the noun they describe. The word for potato, kartafla, is a feminine noun. Because the phrase langar í (want) requires the object to be in the accusative case, we must use the feminine accusative form for the number one, which is eina.
Why do we use tvo for the number two here?
Just like the number one, the number two must match its noun in gender and case. The word for onion, laukur, is a masculine noun. Since we are still dealing with the accusative case after langar í, we use the masculine accusative form of two, which is tvo (rather than the dictionary form tveir).
Why are the nouns spelled kartöflu and lauka?
They are both in the accusative case because they are the things you want (following langar í). The dictionary form of potato is kartafla, which changes to kartöflu in the accusative. The dictionary form for onion is laukur, and its accusative plural (onions) is lauka.
Why does the sentence start with mig instead of ég?
The verb langar is what we call an impersonal verb. In Icelandic, you don't say 'I want', but rather something closer to 'it wants me'. Because you are the object of the wanting, the pronoun 'I' must be in the accusative case, which is mig instead of the normal subject form ég.
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