Breakdown of Mér var alltof heitt þegar ég fór í gufubaðið.
vera
to be
ég
I
fara
to go
mér
me (dative)
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
heitur
hot
þegar
when
alltof
way too
gufubaðið
the sauna
Questions & Answers about Mér var alltof heitt þegar ég fór í gufubaðið.
Why does the sentence start with Mér instead of Ég?
In Icelandic, when talking about how a person physically feels a temperature, you use an "impersonal" structure. The person experiencing the temperature takes the dative case, so ég (I) becomes mér (to me). You can think of it as saying "To me, it was hot."
If I am male or female, why is the adjective heitt in the neuter form?
Because mér is not the grammatical subject in this structure. The sentence acts like "It was hot to me." Since there is no masculine or feminine subject for the adjective to agree with, it simply defaults to the neuter singular form (heitt).
Why is gufubaðið in the accusative case here instead of the dative?
The preposition í can take either the accusative or the dative case. Here, it takes the accusative because the verb fór (went) implies motion or direction into a place. If you were already resting inside the sauna with no movement involved, you would use the dative case (í gufubaðinu).
What is the word alltof made of?
Alltof is an adverb meaning "way too" or "far too". It is a combination of allt (all) and of (too). Just like in English, it is placed directly before the adjective it describes (alltof heitt).
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