Breakdown of Mig vantar plásturinn af því að ég skar mig.
ég
I
mig
me (acc)
af því að
because
vanta
to need (to lack)
Questions & Answers about Mig vantar plásturinn af því að ég skar mig.
Why does the verb skar not have a typical past tense ending?
Skar is the simple past tense of the strong verb skera (to cut). As you are learning in this lesson, strong verbs do not take standard past tense endings like -aði or -ti. Instead, they undergo a vowel change in the root of the word. For both ég (I) and hann/hún/það (he/she/it), the simple past form is skar.
Why does the sentence start with Mig vantar instead of Ég vantar?
Vanta (to need or lack) is an impersonal verb. In Icelandic, the person who experiences the need is not the grammatical subject, so you do not use the nominative case (ég). Instead, the person needing something is put into the accusative case (mig), and the verb stays fixed in the third-person singular (vantar).
What case is the word plásturinn (the band-aid) in?
It is in the accusative case. The verb vanta is a "double accusative" verb: it requires the accusative case for both the person who needs (mig) and the thing that is needed (plásturinn). For the masculine noun plástur, the accusative form with the definite article happens to look exactly the same as the nominative form.
Why is mig used again at the very end of the sentence?