Breakdown of Ég svitna alltaf mikið þegar mér er heitt.
vera
to be
ég
I
mikið
a lot
alltaf
always
mér
me (dative)
heitur
hot
þegar
when
svitna
to sweat
Questions & Answers about Ég svitna alltaf mikið þegar mér er heitt.
Why do we say mér er heitt instead of ég er heitur or ég er heit?
In Icelandic, sensing the temperature happens "to" you. You use the dative pronoun mér (to me) plus er (is) and the neuter adjective heitt. It literally translates to "it is hot to me." If you say ég er heitur (using the normal nominative ég), it means your physical body is hot to the touch, like when you have a high fever, or it's slang for being physically attractive!
Does the adjective heitt change if a woman is speaking?
No, it stays exactly the same. Because the phrase is impersonal (meaning there is no real grammatical subject, just an implied "it"), the adjective always stays in the neuter form heitt. It describes the general environment or feeling, not the speaker's gender.
Why does the first half of the sentence use ég but the second half uses mér?
The verb svitna (to sweat) takes a standard nominative subject, so you use ég. Sweating is an action you physically do. But feeling hot is treated as a condition that affects you, so it requires the dative "experiencer" pronoun mér.
How does the word mikið work in this sentence?
You might recognize mikið as the neuter form of the adjective mikill (much or great). Here, it is being used as an adverb to describe how much you sweat. In English, we translate this adverb as "a lot" or "heavily."
Learn Ég svitna alltaf mikið þegar mér er heitt and more in Icelandic
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free