Breakdown of Ég fer heim af því að ég er þreyttur.
vera
to be
ég
I
þreyttur
tired
heim
home
fara
to go
af því að
because
Questions & Answers about Ég fer heim af því að ég er þreyttur.
Why is 'because' made up of three words (af því að)?
In Icelandic, the word for 'because' is actually a phrase. It literally translates to 'from it that' (af = from, því = it, að = that). You will always see these three words grouped together to mean 'because'.
What happens to the word order after af því að?
The word order stays exactly the same as a normal main sentence! After the conjunction af því að, we use standard subject-verb order. In this sentence, that is the subject ég followed immediately by the verb er.
Why do we use heim instead of heima?
Heim means 'homewards' and is used when there is motion toward a place, like with the verb fer (go). You use heima when you are already at rest in a location, such as when saying you are at home.
Does the word þreyttur tell us anything about the person speaking?
Yes, it tells us the speaker is a man. Þreyttur (tired) has the masculine -ur ending. A woman would drop the ending and say ég er þreytt, while a non-binary person would use the neuter form, which is also þreytt.
The English translation says 'I am going', but the Icelandic just says Ég fer. Why?
Icelandic does not have a direct equivalent to the English '-ing' form (present continuous) for most verbs. The simple present tense ég fer translates to both 'I go' and 'I am going', depending on what makes sense in context.
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