Breakdown of Hvenær kemur fjölskyldan, í apríl eða maí?
koma
to come
hvenær
when
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
fjölskyldan
the family
Questions & Answers about Hvenær kemur fjölskyldan, í apríl eða maí?
Why aren't apríl and maí capitalized?
Unlike in English, months of the year (as well as days of the week and seasons) are not capitalized in Icelandic unless they are the very first word of a sentence.
What case do the months take after the preposition í here?
When using í to talk about a point in time (like "in April"), it takes the accusative case. For many months like apríl and maí, the accusative form is exactly the same as the dictionary form, so the spelling doesn't change.
Why is the verb before the subject (kemur fjölskyldan)?
The translation says "is coming." Why is there no "is" in the Icelandic sentence?
Icelandic doesn't have a direct equivalent to the English present continuous ("is doing" or "is coming"). The simple present tense kemur covers both "comes" and "is coming."
How do we know fjölskyldan means "the family" rather than just "family"?