Breakdown of Við vöknum seint á sunnudögum.
við
we
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
vakna
to wake up
seint
late
sunnudagur
Sunday
Questions & Answers about Við vöknum seint á sunnudögum.
Why is á sunnudögum in the dative case here instead of the accusative?
In Icelandic, when you use á with a day of the week to talk about a habit or something you do repeatedly (like waking up late every Sunday), the day takes the dative case. If you were talking about doing something on a single, specific Sunday, you would use the accusative case.
What is the base form of sunnudögum?
The base form (nominative singular) is sunnudagur. Because it is in the dative plural here to mean on Sundays, the ending changes to -um. This -um ending triggers the U-shift rule, which changes the a in the middle to an ö, making it sunnudögum.
Why does the verb vöknum also have an ö in it?
What type of word is seint?
Seint is an adverb meaning late, used here to describe how we wake up. It comes from the adjective seinn.
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