Breakdown of Ég hræri í pottinum áður en við borðum súpuna.
ég
I
við
we
borða
to eat
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
súpan
the soup
áður en
before
hræra
to stir
potturinn
the pot
Questions & Answers about Ég hræri í pottinum áður en við borðum súpuna.
Why is "before" translated as two words, áður en, instead of just one?
In Icelandic, áður en is a conjunction used to connect an action to a whole new clause (a mini-sentence with its own subject and verb). Because "we eat the soup" (við borðum súpuna) has a subject and a verb, you must use the two-word phrase áður en. If you were just saying "I have done this before" at the end of a sentence without adding a new action, you would just use the single word áður.
Does adding áður en change the word order in the second half of the sentence?
No, the word order after áður en stays exactly the same as a normal independent sentence. Við (the subject) comes first, followed by borðum (the verb), and then súpuna (the object). This makes áður en very straightforward to use, as you don't have to scramble your word order.
Why do we say hræri í pottinum (stir in the pot) instead of just stirring the pot?
In Icelandic, the verb hræra (to stir) is almost always paired with the preposition í when you are stirring a liquid or food. You are literally stirring inside the container or mixture. Because í means "in" here, it forces the noun that follows into the dative case. That changes the base word pottur (pot) into its dative "the" form, pottinum.
What case is súpuna in, and why?
Súpuna is the accusative definite ("the") form of the feminine noun súpa (soup). It is in the accusative case here simply because it is the direct object receiving the action of the verb borða (to eat).
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