# Icelandic: Þegar slökkt hefur verið



## Daniel20

Hi all,

Not sure what´s going on with this sentence, though I get the meaning (... because of a translation in the book). Context:



> Ég hlakka alltaf til jólanna *en þegar slökkt hefur verið á jólaljósunum á þrettándanum fer í hönd erfiðari timi.*


I´m also thrown off by the <á þrettándanum fer í hönd erfiðari timi>. I get it from the individual words, but not sure how the sentence has gone together. I feel like something needs to go in between fer í hönd and erfiðari timi. My translation would be:

I always look forward to Christmas, but it's a really difficult time when the Christmas lights go out on Þrettándinn!

Although I think that´s right, I don´t get why the "erfiðari timi" doesn´t go at the front, like in the English?

Side note: inflection in erfiðari. Miðstig, veik byging. Why?

Cheers!


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## Alxmrphi

Hey Daniel,

You can analyse this from a series of switching around of elements. In an Icelandic grammar class, this is often an exercise they will ask you to do (and my god it can be confusing sometimes!) but for that subordinate clause (what you have in bold) it would look something like this:

[Erfiðari timi] [fer í hönd] [þegar slökkt hefur verið á jólaljósunum á þrettándanum]

Where the subject is at the front of the clause, followed by the verb phrase and then the adverbial after that. Then you can shift the adverbial to the front:

[þegar slökkt hefur verið á jólaljósunum á þrettándanum] [erfiðari timi] [fer í hönd]

You'd probably have a comma separating the adverbial from _erfiðari timi_ in that case, but then you can also _postpose_ the subject ahead of the verb phrase to get the ordering you were originally asking about:

[þegar slökkt hefur verið á jólaljósunum á þrettándanum] [fer í hönd] [erfiðari timi]

All options have their own stylistic effects and this kind of ordering happens all the time in English, it's just weird sometimes to see it in a language you're learning where it's not normal. With a bit of investigation, you can see just how many ways we can put the same order of elements in different orders in English and with that appreciation, it'll make total sense that the same kind of thing also happens in Icelandic (though the specific ordering in both languages might not always sound good in comparison!)

Edit: about _erfiðari_ - that is miðstig, yes. Miðstig is always weak in Icelandic and is a little more rigid in form than the default case (all masculine and feminine singular end in -i and neuter ends in -a, all plurals end in -i).


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## Segorian

Excellent analysis from Alxmrphi (as ususal), except that





Alxmrphi said:


> [þegar slökkt hefur verið á jólaljósunum á þrettándanum] [erfiðari timi] [fer í hönd]


is not something you can say. If we wanted to end the sentence with _í hönd_, we would *have* to say “…*fer* erfiðari tími *í hönd*”.


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## Alxmrphi

Segorian said:


> Excellent analysis from Alxmrphi (as ususal), except that is not something you can say. If we wanted to end the sentence with _í hönd_, we would *have* to say “…*fer* erfiðari tími *í hönd*”.


Ah, totally. Thanks for pointing out!
Is _fer í hönd _a bit archaic/unusual or would you say it just sounds completely normal? It's the first time I've come across it and seems like it could be one of those things it's maybe not best to try to put into all conversations if possible. If I would have said to some classmates a month ago, "_Prófin fara í hönd!_" would that be maybe a bit unusual?


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## Segorian

_Fer í hönd_ is neither archaic nor unusual, but it is a moderately formal expression. It belongs mainly to the written language and few people would be likely to use it in a conversation. However, a newspaper article or a public speech of any degree of formality would be appropriate places for it. Some examples from the newspapers:

„Pitsuaðdáendur þurfa ekki að örvænta þó að grilltíminn fari nú í hönd því að pitsu er vel hægt að gera á grilli…“ (Fréttablaðið 10 June 2005, p. 36)
„Málinu er þó langt í frá lokið enda fer nú í hönd hörð barátta innan öldungadeildarinnar…“ (Morgunblaðið 9 November 2009. p. 12)
„Íslensku skákbörnin og ungmennin voru heiðruð í Hörpu á miðvikudaginn, þegar Skáksamband Íslands og N1 efndu til kynningar á skákhátíðinni sem í hönd fer.“ (Fréttatíminn 15 February 2013, p. 50)


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## Alxmrphi

Takk  ...


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## Daniel20

A less formal, conversational equivalent would be....?


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## Alxmrphi

Daniel20 said:


> A less formal, conversational equivalent would be....?


_Nálgast_, I think.


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## Segorian

(vera) að byrja
 að hefjast:

grilltíminn er að byrja / þó að grilltíminn sé að byrja
hörð barátta er að hefjast
á skákhátíðinni sem er að hefjast


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