Breakdown of Mætti ég sjá kvittunina, vinsamlegast?
sjá
to see
vinsamlegast
please
mætti ég
may I
kvittunin
the receipt
Questions & Answers about Mætti ég sjá kvittunina, vinsamlegast?
Why do we use mætti here instead of má?
Mætti is the past subjunctive form of mega (to be allowed to / may). Just like in English where we use words like "could" or "might" to sound softer, Icelandic uses these fixed subjunctive forms to make a request much more polite than just saying Má ég... (May I...).
Why is sjá in its dictionary form (infinitive) here?
The verb mega (which mætti comes from) acts as a helper verb. In Icelandic, the main action verb that follows a helper verb stays in the infinitive form. So it is Mætti ég sjá (May I see), just as in English we say "May I see" rather than "May I saw".
Why is the word for receipt spelled kvittunina here?
Kvittunina means "the receipt". It is the definite form of the feminine noun kvittun. It gets the specific ending -ina because it is in the accusative case, which is required here because it is the direct object receiving the action of the verb sjá (to see).
Is vinsamlegast the most common way to say "please" in Icelandic?
It is the direct translation for "please", literally meaning "most friendlily". However, Icelanders rely much more on polite verb forms like Mætti ég... to show politeness. Because the verb already makes the sentence very polite, adding vinsamlegast is a bit formal, though it is perfectly fine and polite to use.
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