Breakdown of Við tökum fótboltann og hlaupum út.
og
and
við
we
taka
to take
hlaupa
to run
út
out (motion outwards)
fótboltinn
the football
Questions & Answers about Við tökum fótboltann og hlaupum út.
Why is the verb tökum spelled with an ö when the dictionary form is taka?
This is a great example of the 'u-shift' rule. The ending for the við (we) form is -um. Whenever a word has an a in its root, the u in the ending forces that a to change to an ö. That is why taka becomes tökum.
Does the verb hlaupum (we run) also go through a vowel change?
No, it doesn't. The u-shift rule we saw in tökum only affects the vowel a. The dictionary form is hlaupa, and since its root vowel is au, it stays exactly the same. You just swap the infinitive -a for the -um ending to get hlaupum.
Why is the word for football fótboltann instead of its basic form fótbolti?
Two things are happening here. First, the verb taka (to take) is an action done to the ball, so it puts the word into the accusative case (the form used for direct objects), changing fótbolti to fótbolta. Second, the sentence says 'the football'. In Icelandic, 'the' attaches to the end of the noun. The masculine accusative ending for 'the' is -nn, making it fótboltann.
Why do we use út for 'outside' here instead of úti?
Icelandic uses different words depending on whether you are moving somewhere or already there. Because the sentence is about movement (running from the inside to the outside), we use the directional word út. If you were already outside standing still, you would use úti.
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