Breakdown of Ég þarf að slaka á af því að mér líður illa.
ég
I
mér
me (dative)
að
to (infinitive marker)
þurfa
to need
af því að
because
líða
to feel
illa
badly
slaka á
to relax
Questions & Answers about Ég þarf að slaka á af því að mér líður illa.
This lesson is about af hverju (why). How does af því að fit in?
Af því að means "because" and is the standard way to answer an af hverju ("why") question. Literally, it means "of that that," but you use it just like "because" in English to give a reason for your actions.
Why is there an á after slaka?
In Icelandic, "to relax" is a phrasal verb: að slaka á. If you just use slaka by itself, it usually means "to loosen" or "to slacken." The preposition á is required here for the phrase to mean "relax."
Why does the sentence say mér líður instead of ég líð?
The verb líða (to feel) is an impersonal verb. The person having the feeling doesn't take the normal subject form (ég). Instead, they must be in the dative case (mér). You can think of it as literally meaning "it feels to me."
Why do we use the word illa instead of a regular adjective for "bad"?
Because líða is a verb describing how you feel, it must be modified by an adverb rather than an adjective. Illa is the adverb form, so in Icelandic you are technically saying "it feels badly to me."
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