# Icelandic: Já, förum þangað



## dreadedutch

hey all,

I have somewhat of a hard time translating: _Já, förum þangað. 

_My best effort so far is: _Yes, let (us) go there.
_Translating it to my language (dutch) confuses me a bit as well.
I'm not very good at the whole nominative, accusative, etc yet (or whatever rule may apply for properly translating this sentence). I understand the theory a little but I'm not able to fully apply it yet to sentences.
I recognize that _förum _comes from _fara_ and _förum _indicates or refers to we/við? Which is the reason why it's written like that right? At least more than 1 person? 
So that's what I got so far 

Takk!


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## Alxmrphi

The reason is... let's look at the whole conversation:


> *BETTINA :*                                                  Eigum við að fara á kaffihús núna?
> *Bettina: Shall we go to a cafè now?*
> _______________________________________
> *HELGA* :                                                  Já, það er gott kaffihús þarna sem heitir Kaffi París.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 *
> Helga: Yes, there is a good cafè (over) there that's called Kaffi París.*
> * _____________________________________________
> XAVIER* :                                                   Já, förum þangað.
> *Xavier: Yes, let's go there*.
> ________________________
> There are 3 people, Bettina is talking to Helga and Xavier, and after Helga replies, Xavier says _*Já, förum þangað*. _


S_o....... 
_
*Bettina: Shall we go to the cafè now?
Helga: Yes, there is a good cafè (over) there that's called Kaffi París.
Xavier: Yes, let's go there*.

Does it make more sense now, when Xavier he is talking, he means 'all of them' (*Bettina*/*Helga*/*Xavier*), so he's using the 'we' form... which is...

*Við förum* (we go)

Does that make sense, or is there something deeper you were curious about?
Regarding your question, nothing regarding the different cases is being applied in the last sentence, just simple verb conjugation, so don't worry


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## hanne

café, not cafè .
Isn't þangað an accusative? Anyway, in search of a case I'd be looking for an accusative since they're moving to the café...


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## Alxmrphi

I had my suspicions as well, but the dictionary just listed it as an adverb and not being a declined form of anything else (it usually takes you to the original form if it is a declined form so this makes me think it's not something that you can decline)
But for the purposes of explaining it to someone that is very new to Icelandic, I thought it would be wise to avoid possibile complications until I had a definite answer.
Thanks for the accent tip, I had no idea what it was!!! I was stuck, nearly spelling it with 2 *f's* and different accents!

I'll see what I can find out about if it's an accusative or not, like you said, logically it seems it would be an accusative, the direct object "let's go* there*".

[Edit]:

*Icelandic*
*Adverb*

*þangað* (_not comparable_)


there (in that direction), thither

Ooooh I found a better explanation, variations on different forms of 'there' express 'from/to' as well, if we look at this example it explains it:

Icelandic also have adverbs that can vary depending if motion is implied or not. English have this distinction (hence, whither, whence, hither, and thither), even though it is now considered old-fashioned. Icelandic would have:
*Hvar* - where, *hvaðan* - where from, *hvert* - where to
*Hér(na)* - here, *héðan* - from here, *hingað* - to here
*Þarna - there, þaðan - from there, þangað - to there

*So here it's an uncomparable adjective that means '*(to) there*'*
*


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## dreadedutch

Cool  Yea that's the only thing I was confused about but that was easy. I realized that because there are 3 people in this particular conversation *förum *has to be used. But when I started to translate *Já, förum þangað *I was wondering if you had to say something like *we should go there *or *let us go there* but it isn't necessary. 

Any tips on learning verb conjugation? What I've seen so far is this (with for example að vera):

ég er
þú ert 
hann/hún er

etc. Which is exactly the same way I used to learn verbs in primary school and verb conjugation is also a common thing in the dutch language. Endlessly writing down I/you/he/we/they/them and then the verb. And how do you know like in the example I just wrote down that verb you're looking for, the verb found in the dictionary (what do you call that in english?) is vera? I mean if you try and find *ert* in the Icelandic dictionary you won't right?


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## Alxmrphi

> I just wrote down that verb you're looking for, the verb found in the dictionary (what do you call that in english?)


"The dictionary form" / "The pure form" (for verbs... *infinitive*)

As for verbs, I'm still trying to understand them, and I can't get my head around them yet, there are weak verbs and strong verbs, there are 4 groups of weak verbs and 8 groups of strong verbs.....
So, I'm slowly seeing the differences between them, and then making a group in my mind, and will mentally 'put' them into each group, I'll let you know if I get any good information...

But I can tell you some general rules to help, you'll need to know if it's strong or weak, you can use this site. Just type in the verb (infinitive) and it will give you the form..
The good news is, for the plural, 95% of the time, the endings are exactly the same, for strong and weak verbs, all working in the same way, it's only the

I
You
He/She 

....forms that are different, usually you add an *-a *or an* -i *to the stem...

*að raka *(to shave)
1) take off the ending *-a*
........... *rak*

2) add '*a*' for ég form -> ég raka
3) add '*ar*' for þú form -> þú rakar
4) add '*ar*' for hann form -> hann rakar

For some verbs you take off the 'a' and add 'i' (like að heita, a verb I know you already know!)

*að heita *(to be called)
1) take off the ending *-i*
........... *heit*

2) add '*i*' for ég form -> ég heiti
3) add '*ir*' for þú form -> þú heitir
4) add '*ir*' for hann form -> hann heitir

That's how most of them work anyway, basically, there are NO good explanations on the internet for this, only in this book I am using..
By the way, I forgot, I have a .pdf off the book I bought, I think it will be a big help to you dreadeddutch, PM me your email address and I will send it to you.


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## hanne

dreadedutch said:


> I mean if you try and find *ert* in the Icelandic dictionary you won't right?


Just like "are" or "is" would never get you to "to be" in an English dictionary .



dreadedutch said:


> Any tips on learning verb conjugation? What I've seen so far is this (with for example að vera):
> ...
> etc. Which is exactly the same way I used to learn verbs in primary school and verb conjugation is also a common thing in the dutch language. Endlessly writing down I/you/he/we/they/them and then the verb.


I think memory drilling is the only way to do this in general, for any language - at least in the beginning, later you might develop a feel for what sounds right (but for me that "feel" is based on stuff I've memorised, so no chance of shortcuts). I don't write it down though, saying it out loud works better for me.

It seems like you somehow expect Icelandic to be easier to learn than English - it isn't


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## dreadedutch

Great! Thanks Alex. 
The more I get into this stuff the more I see new similarities between my language and the Icelandic language. So a little in depth study of my own language should help me understand Icelandic a bit better.

I also realize now why I was so fixed on having the word *we *or *us *in the English translation of *Já, förum þangað*. When I do the exercises I translate from Icelandic to Dutch. When you write down the Dutch translation the word *we *(which is *wij *in Dutch) will be in that sentence no matter what. And since *við *wasn't in the Icelandic sentence I got a bit confused. It gets even more confusing switching between Icelandic, Dutch and English 

It's good for the brain though 

Hi hanne, 

No I don't expect it to be easier than English. I don't think you can get any easier language than English. But "rulewise" there are A LOT of similarities between my language (dutch) and the Icelandic language. Although I have learned these rules at a very young age in school I didn't exactly understand what the hell it was that I was applying . Also bear in mind that when I do my exercises I translate directly to Dutch. When I ask questions here I translate again to English. You can't help but mess up every now and then.
I agree with the drilling part though. That's the way it went with learning verbs in school for me so this won't be any different


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## Alxmrphi

It depends on how you categorise the information, I'm not sure if you read my memory technique explanation from one of the other threads.. I have a similar set up for verbs, 

8 categories of strong verbs
4 for weak verbs...

Once you learn how each one behaves, associate an area of a city you know well for each one, make an association and write it down, place the correct verb in each area, right now I've only done it for verbs and how they work in the past, the irregular ones you need to know separately!! But for the rest, works...

I've noticed pieces of information that can be picked together to form quite a good system of rules... especially this one for strong verbs in Icelandic.... (search for "Simple past of strong verbs" to take you to the relevant part)

But there are just so many irregularities, the grammar rules seem to cover only 60% of the language and the rest seems to be.... random! 



			
				hanne said:
			
		

> (but for me that "feel" is based on stuff I've memorised, so no chance of shortcuts)



Yeah that's very true as well, you learn by memorising, then things seem to kind of 'appear incorrect' or 'correct', like the mind bases its views on what has been memorised already!


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