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Þau læra mikið til að fá skírteinið.

Þau læra mikið til að fá skírteinið.
They study a lot to get the certificate.
From Lesson 140:Purpose clauses (til að)·Icelandic

Questions & Answers about Þau læra mikið til að fá skírteinið.

Why is it just til að here and not til þess að?
Both til að and til þess að mean "in order to." In modern everyday Icelandic, people often drop the þess to make it shorter, exactly as we see here. Both are correct, but til að is very common in casual speech and writing.
What form of the verb comes after til að?
It is always followed by a verb in the infinitive (the dictionary form). Here, that verb is fá (to get). You don't conjugate it for the subject Þau.
Why does the sentence use Þau for "They"?
Þau is the neuter plural form of "they." In Icelandic, if a group of people includes both males and females, or if the genders are unknown, you must use the neuter form Þau. If it were a group of only men, it would be Þeir, and for only women, Þær.
I know læra means "to learn". Can it also mean "to study"?
Yes! While Icelandic has other phrases for studying at a university level, læra is the most common everyday word for doing schoolwork, practicing a skill, or studying for a test.
What is the base form of skírteinið?
The base word is skírteini (certificate or license), which is a neuter noun. The -ð at the end is the attached definite article, making it "the certificate". It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of fá, but neuter words look exactly the same in the nominative and accusative cases.

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