# Icelandic: á eftir



## ShakeyX

Been told that á eftir can mean... "going". Not sure if that is relevant to what follows but anyone want to confirm that.

Anyway saw this and cannot work it out... I'll give an attempt though.


"Hljómar vel, við höfum ekki gott af meira áti" - Sounds good, we would have not good (it would not be good for us) to eat more? by more food?

"Þessi veitingastaður minn á eftir að mala gull!" - This restaurant (of mine) going to... crush gold?


----------



## Alxmrphi

Yeah it just means that something will come in the future. Related to the 'after' meaning but I'd say the translation was more: _still has to / has yet to_.
If someone moves to America to hopefully get famous in some movie career or something and his friends talk about him back home then you can say something like: _Hann er aukaleikari í sjónvarpsþætti en á eftir að meika það_ if you wanted to be a bit "sletty" to mean "_He's an extra in a TV show and is still yet to make it big._"

So in that last example it means it will _mala gull _(yeah, basically make a lot of money)after (_it's still to come_... _it's going to do that_). It can also be used with a nuance of 'will end up doing something' like you're giving a warning. You see this a lot when used with the verb 'regret' (að eiga eftir að sjá eftir einherju - X will end up regretting something). Icelanders use a lot of extreme metaphors in colloquial speech I've noticed. I suppose language/country has a selection of people that typically do that but yeah it's quite prevalent here. I heard one a few days ago that's just very typical, "Skellum okkur í bío!" (Crash ourselves into the cinema) which has now become sort of normalised to a slang way to say 'let's go somewhere' but obviously a bit stronger than that. Even the once-extreme _geðveikur _to describe new 'sick' fads is losing the impact it once had. That's how languages change though. Just look what happened to 'amazing' and 'awesome' in English.

Edit: yeah I think you got the meaning with the 'eating more won't do us any good' line.


----------



## ShakeyX

Haha yeh I have heard geðveikur quite alot.

About the "is still yet to make it" does it imply some sort of... he is on his way, that is to come... or more of a state, that he had a goal, and that has not been achieved. Is it denoting a path that is on its way or that might never come?


----------



## Alxmrphi

ShakeyX said:


> Haha yeh I have heard geðveikur quite alot.
> 
> About the "is still yet to make it" does it imply some sort of... he is on his way, that is to come... or more of a state, that he had a goal, and that has not been achieved. Is it denoting a path that is on its way or that might never come?



I think it expresses the fact it's being worked towards, yes.
It's putting a future unachieved goal and saying that is what's being aimed towards, whether the person thinks it's likely or not is, I think, not expressed.
I'm just going on instinct here though. You'll need native confirmation on that.


----------



## Daniel20

@ Alex: Regards the 'crash' bit. It is now common in English to say you will 'smash' something i.e 'tonight we will smash a few beers', which is obviously a similar thing. Do you think it is just an Icelandisation of that?


----------



## Alxmrphi

Daniel20 said:


> @ Alex: Regards the 'crash' bit. It is now common in English to say you will 'smash' something i.e 'tonight we will smash a few beers', which is obviously a similar thing. Do you think it is just an Icelandisation of that?


It's not anything related to specific languages, it's just a process that happens to nearly every language. Expressions always become weaker and we pull in stronger ones to regain the effect after we're used to the weakened nuance in the older form we used and it just cycles through. Majority of the time in slang it splits and goes down its own path (exactly like the smash/destroy things we/people use for big drinking sessions) and that's not likely to change the whole definition, because it's kind of metaphorical and typical of a phase of younger people who then stop saying certain things. It's a human thing to do to language and both things are happening by themselves, not that one thing is having an effect on another. Good observation, though. There seems to be a trend to come up with the most ridiculous way to express something for comic effect in this day and age, definitely noticed that. The media does this all the time. I watched all the coverage leading up to the last US election and some of the ways that the media was referring to banal, boring policy debate was hilarious. Rightly poked fun at on other shows. There will be a time when catastrophic can be used when you've forgotten your keys at home or something equally non-catastrophic today. Might be going a bit off-topic here.


----------



## Daniel20

Ah okay. I have an Icelandic mate who says they tend to hear English things and then translate it into Icelandic, just wondered if it was one of those things. This forum always makes me realise how hard this language is 

I work in a supermarket part-time as well as being a student - and you're not far off. Not having a product is 'an absolute disgrace'.

Anyway, you're right, off topic.


----------



## Hjalti

> "Hljómar vel, við höfum ekki gott af meira áti" - Sounds good, we would have not good (it would not be good for us) to eat more? by more food?


Is "áti" what confused you? It's the noun "át" and is "the act of eating" or something like that.


----------



## ShakeyX

Just the whole thing is a bit of a wierd construction in english I find. Literally "I would have not good by more eating?" which makes no sense, I didn't know the best way to translate it.


----------



## Silver_Biscuit

Alxmrphi said:


> I think it expresses the fact it's being worked towards, yes.
> It's putting a future unachieved goal and saying that is what's being aimed towards, whether the person thinks it's likely or not is, I think, not expressed.
> I'm just going on instinct here though. You'll need native confirmation on that.



Not a native, but..... yes and no. In this case ("Þessi veitingastaður á eftir að mala gull") it is meant that the restaurant _will_ make a lot of money, it is something that is expected to happen in the future. If you say that an actor "á eftir að meika það" it's the same thing, it is a strong prediction that the actor _will_ make it big. Hann á eftir að sjá eftir þessu means, as you correctly say, that he will end up regretting this. In these cases it's basically only a little bit weaker than saying hann *mun* sjá eftir þessu, for example.

You can also use it to talk about tasks that someone has left to do. 

Ertu búinn að þrífa íbúðina þína? Have you finished cleaning your flat?
Næstum því, ég á eftir að sópa gólfið. Nearly, I just have to mop the floor.

Ertu búinn að skila ritgerðinni? Have you handed in the essay?
Nei ég á eftir að skrifa hana. No, I haven't written it yet.

In these cases you are not really making a prediction in the same way, but you are still talking about something that _will_ happen, because it's implied that you _have_ to do something but haven't done so yet.


----------

