Breakdown of Osturinn var vondur eftir að hann var úti.
vera
to be
hann
he
úti
outside
osturinn
the cheese
vondur
bad (evil, mean, angry) / bad-tasting, nasty (of food)
eftir að
after (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Osturinn var vondur eftir að hann var úti.
Why do we use eftir að here instead of just eftir?
Because we are connecting two full clauses (each with a subject and a verb). Eftir by itself is a preposition used before a noun, like 'after work'. When you want to say 'after something happened', you must use the conjunction eftir að.
Why is the pronoun hann used to refer to the cheese?
In Icelandic, pronouns must match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. Because ostur (cheese) is a masculine noun, you use the masculine pronoun hann to refer back to it, even though we just say 'it' in English.
Does vondur mean the cheese was evil?
Not quite! While vondur can mean 'evil' or 'mean' when talking about people, when you use it to describe food, it simply means that it tastes bad or has gone sour.
Why is the word for outside úti instead of út?
Icelandic uses different words for locations depending on whether there is movement. Úti is stationary and means something is currently located outside. Út is used for movement, like going out. Since the cheese was just sitting there, we use úti.
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