Question 1

Are meira and minna adjectives or adverbs in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

They are adverbs of comparison. They aren't describing a noun; they are telling us the degree to which we do the verbs (lærum and tölum). They are the comparative forms of the basic adverbs mikið (much/a lot) and lítið (little).

Question 2

Why do we use meira and minna here instead of fleiri and færri?

Accepted Answer

Meira (more) and minna (less) are used for uncountable amounts and as adverbs to describe how much an action is done. You would use fleiri (more) and færri (fewer) if you were comparing countable objects, like books or people.

Question 3

The phrase meira en usually translates to 'more than'. Why does the translation use 'but'?

Accepted Answer

The word en is doing double duty here! In Icelandic, en means both 'than' (used for comparisons) and 'but' (used for connecting contrasting ideas). Even though meira en very often means 'more than', the context here contrasts two separate actions: we learn more, but we speak less.

Question 4

Why isn't the word við (we) repeated before the second verb, tölum?

Accepted Answer

Just like in English, you don't need to repeat the subject if it is exactly the same for both verbs. You could perfectly well say Við lærum meira en við tölum minna, but dropping the second við is concise and sounds much more natural.

Við lærum meira en tölum minna.

Breakdown of Við lærum meira en tölum minna.

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