Questions & Answers about Við förum oft til ömmu.
Why does the word for grandma change to ömmu here instead of staying as amma?
The preposition til (to) always forces the noun that follows it into the genitive case, which is often used to show possession or destination. For weak feminine nouns that end in -a in their base form, like amma, the genitive form ends in -u, making it ömmu.
The English translation says 'to grandma's', but is there a word for 'house' or 'place' in the Icelandic sentence?
No, it is simply implied! In Icelandic, when you use til followed by a person, it naturally translates to going to that person's home or place. You do not need to add an extra word for 'house'.
Why is the adverb oft (often) placed right after the verb instead of before it like in English?
Icelandic follows a strict rule in standard statements where the main verb must be the second piece of information in the sentence. Since the pronoun Við takes up the first position, the verb förum must come second. The adverb oft has to wait its turn and comes right after the verb.
I remember the verb 'to go' is fara. Why does the first vowel change to an 'ö' in förum?
This happens because of a very common Icelandic vowel shift. Whenever a word gets an ending containing the letter -u (like the -um ending for 'we'), an a earlier in the root of the word gets changed into an ö. So, the base verb fara becomes förum when matching with Við.
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