# Icelandic: "svo" at the beginning of a clause



## Gavril

Sæl,

In an earlier thread, NMMIG responded to something I'd written by saying,



> Edit: Svo efnist maður *af *eitthverju en ekki* með *(eða er ég að fara með fleypur?).



I would expect _svo _at the beginning of a clause to mean "thus" (i.e., in the way that has just been described) or "therefore", but it's hard for me to read _svo_ that way in the context of the post I'm quoting from.

How is *svo* functioning in the above sentence? E.g., how would this sentence be different semantically from

_"Maður efnist *af* eitthverju en ekki *með *(eða er ég ...)*"*

_?

Takk,
Gavril


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## NoMoreMrIceGuy

It means next, additionally... Because it was and added point to a former one.


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## Silver_Biscuit

Eitthverju? Einhverju, surely...


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## NoMoreMrIceGuy

Silver_Biscuit said:


> Eitthverju? Einhverju, surely...



Guilty as charged.


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## Gavril

NoMoreMrIceGuy said:


> It means next, additionally... Because it was and added point to a former one.



By "former one", do you mean the previous sentence ("Eða bara 'sjáðu' fyrir framan")?

Would the meaning/tone have been different if you had used "þá" in this sentence instead of "svo" (_Efnist maður þá __*af* eitthverju ...__)__?

_Takk


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## NoMoreMrIceGuy

Me said:


> Eða bara 'sjáðu' fyrir framan.
> 
> Edit: Svo efnist maður *af* einhverju en ekki *með* (eða er ég að fara með fleypur?).
> Edit 2: Einnig: 'Arfleitt hann að öllu'
> Edit 3: *Gæti* í staðinn fyrir *gat*



Or just _sjáðu_ in front.

[Svo] one gets rich *off of* something, not *with*.

The _svo/síðan/einnig _is used to connect the two sentences together so that they don't feel like disconnected items on a list.


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## Gavril

NoMoreMrIceGuy said:


> The _svo/síðan/einnig _is used to connect the two sentences together so that they don't feel like disconnected items on a list.



Thanks, NMMIG. I think Icelandic has a (slightly) different conception of how a "list" is structured than standard English, which is why I sometimes run into problems with *svo*, *þá* and similar words.


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## Alxmrphi

Gavril said:


> Thanks, NMMIG. I think Icelandic has a (slightly) different conception of how a "list" is structured than standard English, which is why I sometimes run into problems with *svo*, *þá* and similar words.


But the *svo* here is just like how we'd use* so* in English, right?

If I had some claim or some explanation and then wanted to explain something a bit further, on a new line I could start off with a connected/furthered idea with, "So.."
Maybe I'm not understanding it correctly, or my English is forcing an interpretation into my understanding of the Icelandic, but it seems pretty unremarkable to me.
Thoughts?


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## NoMoreMrIceGuy

Alxmrphi said:


> But the *svo* here is just like how we'd use* so* in English, right?
> 
> If I had some claim or some explanation and then wanted to explain something a bit further, on a new line I could start off with a connected/furthered idea with, "So.."
> Maybe I'm not understanding it correctly, or my English is forcing an interpretation into my understanding of the Icelandic, but it seems pretty unremarkable to me.
> Thoughts?



No, I don't think so. Maybe the word _furthermore_ is what I'm trying to convey here.

_Ég kemst ekki í afmælið. Svo þykja mér veislur líka leiðinlegar._


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## Gavril

Alxmrphi said:


> But the *svo* here is just like how we'd use* so* in English, right?



I wouldn't use "so" to connect these two sentences in English. The first one ("Eða bara 'sjáðu' fyrir framan") is a response to what the last poster said; the second sentence sets off in a different direction, beginning a list of corrections to the original post.

I might introduce the list by saying, "*So*, here are some corrections: ...", but even there it sounds a bit odd to me, perhaps because the two sentences are responding to different posts.

The exact conditions where "so", "then", etc. sound natural to me in English are hard for me to explain (at least without thinking it over a bit more); it would be interesting to do further comparison between English and Icelandic in this regard (perhaps someone has already done so).

Edit: crosspost with NMMIG.


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