Breakdown of Þegar hann sá afa, kom æskan aftur.
hann
he
koma
to come
sjá
to see
afinn
the grandfather
aftur
again
þegar
when
æskan
the youth
Questions & Answers about Þegar hann sá afa, kom æskan aftur.
Why does the second half of the sentence say kom æskan instead of æskan kom?
Does þegar work for asking "When?" as well?
No, þegar is only used to connect ideas, meaning "at the time that" for past or future events. To ask a question like "When did he see grandpa?", you have to use the question word hvenær.
Why is the word for grandpa spelled afa here instead of afi?
The verb sjá (to see) requires the person or thing being seen to be in the accusative case. Here, the verb is in the past tense (sá), but it still forces the dictionary form afi to change to its accusative form, afa.
Why doesn't afa have a definite article (the attached "the")?
When Icelanders talk about close family members like afi (grandpa) or amma (grandma), they usually drop the attached "the" and just use the base word. This is very similar to how we just say "grandpa" in English instead of "the grandpa".
What is the infinitive (dictionary form) of the verb sá?
The dictionary form is sjá (to see). It is a highly irregular verb, so the past tense for "he" becomes sá.
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