Breakdown of Eru stelpurnar búnar að pakka fötunum?
vera
to be
stelpan
the girl
að
to (infinitive marker)
fötin
the clothes
Questions & Answers about Eru stelpurnar búnar að pakka fötunum?
Why does búinn change to búnar in this sentence?
In the vera búinn að construction, the word búinn behaves like an adjective. It has to agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. Since stelpurnar (the girls) is feminine and plural, búinn changes to its feminine plural form, búnar.
How does the word order work when asking a question with this structure?
Just like in English! To turn a statement into a question, you swap the subject and the verb vera (to be). So instead of Stelpurnar eru... (The girls are...), you start with Eru stelpurnar... (Are the girls...). The rest of the phrase (búnar að pakka) stays exactly the same.
Why is "the clothes" written as fötunum and not the accusative form fötin?
In Icelandic, certain verbs demand that their object takes a specific case. The verb pakka (to pack) always requires the thing being packed to be in the dative case.