Ég sé ekki þessa flugu. Af hverju er hún í skugganum?
I do not see this fly. Why is it in the shadow?
Breakdown of Ég sé ekki þessa flugu. Af hverju er hún í skugganum?
vera
to be
ég
I
hún
she
ekki
not
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
sjá
to see
þessi
this (m/f)
af hverju
why
flugan
the fly
skugginn
the shadow
Questions & Answers about Ég sé ekki þessa flugu. Af hverju er hún í skugganum?
Why is the shadow í skugganum rather than í skuggann here?
The preposition í (in) takes the dative case when describing a static location, which is exactly what we are learning in this lesson! Since the fly is already located in the shadow, we use the dative form skugganum. If it were flying into the shadow (showing direction or movement to a new place), it would take the accusative form í skuggann.
Why do we use hún to say it in the second sentence?
In Icelandic, pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. The word for fly, fluga, is a feminine noun. Therefore, you must use the feminine pronoun hún (literally she) instead of a neutral word to say it.
Why is the fly þessa flugu instead of þessi fluga?
The verb sjá (to see) puts the thing being seen into the accusative case. The feminine noun fluga changes to flugu in the accusative, and the word for this (þessi) must match it, becoming þessa.
Does af hverju literally translate to from what?
Yes! Af hverju is the standard way to ask why in Icelandic. It literally means from what or of what. The word hverju is the dative form of hvað (what), because the preposition af always requires the dative case.
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