Breakdown of Ísland fær sjálfstæði árið 1944.
Ísland
Iceland
fá
to get
árið
the year
sjálfstæðið
the independence
Questions & Answers about Ísland fær sjálfstæði árið 1944.
Why isn't there a preposition like "í" (in) before "árið 1944"?
In Icelandic, when you state that an event happened "in the year X", you don't use a preposition. You just use the word ár (year) with the definite article suffix attached to make it árið (the year), followed directly by the number.
The verb fær means "gets" or "gains" in the present tense. Why use present tense for 1944?
This is called the historical present. Just like in English, Icelandic often uses the present tense to describe important historical events to make them feel more immediate and alive. Using the past tense fékk (got) would also be completely correct here.
How would I read the year "1944" out loud in this sentence?
Years before 2000 are read as hundreds. You would say "nineteen hundred forty and four", which is nítján hundruð fjörutíu og fjögur in Icelandic.
The word sjálfstæði (independence) ends in "-i". Is it in the dative case here?
It is actually in the accusative case because it is the direct object being "gained" by the verb fá (here conjugated as fær). The noun sjálfstæði is a neuter word that keeps the exact same form in all four cases in the singular, so it always ends in -i.
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