Breakdown of Við förum í gufubaðið af því að okkur er mjög kalt.
vera
to be
við
we
mjög
very
fara
to go
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
okkur
us
kaldur
cold
af því að
because
gufubaðið
the sauna
Questions & Answers about Við förum í gufubaðið af því að okkur er mjög kalt.
Why does the sentence use okkur instead of við for 'we are cold'?
In Icelandic, feelings of temperature happen to you. Instead of saying 'we are cold,' you say 'to us is cold.' Because of this, the person feeling the temperature must be in the dative case. The dative form of við (we) is okkur.
Since okkur means 'us/we', why is the verb er (is) instead of erum (are)?
In impersonal sentences like this, the verb doesn't agree with the person feeling the temperature. It always stays in the 3rd person singular, as if the subject were an invisible 'it' (it is cold to us). That is why we use er.
Why is the adjective kalt in the singular? Shouldn't it match the plural pronoun?
Normally, adjectives change to match the noun or pronoun they describe. However, in this specific structure for temperature, the adjective is always in the neuter singular form (kalt), no matter how many people are cold.
Why is gufubaðið (the sauna) in the accusative case here?
The preposition í takes the accusative case when it describes movement or direction towards a place, like going into the sauna. If you were already resting inside the sauna, it would take the dative case instead.
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