# Icelandic: every time



## Alxmrphi

Hæ öll,

Ég hef spurningu um þýðinguna orðs 'every'.
Hvað er rétta orðið að nota?

I know that you use numeral (in dative) + sinn (in dative) to express 'nth time' (except for *tvisvar */ *þrisvar*) i.e:

_Það eru ferðir þrisvar ì dag, stundum fjórum sinnum í dag_!

But for something like _'every time I visit Björn, he is always busy' _how do I use 'every'? I thought maybe *sérhver *might work but I did a search for "*sérhverju sinnum*" and got no hits on Google so that leads me to believe I got that wrong.

What would it be?

_*<?>* sinnum að er ég í heimsókn hjá Birni, hann er alltaf upptekinn_.

Takk fyrir.


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## Tazzler

Hæ, alxmrphi!

Icelandic is a very frustrating language. :/ There are so many expressions that don't seem to follow any rules! Anyway, after some sleuthing, I believe what you need to say is this: _í hvert skipti_. _Sinn_ can also be used, but it doesn't seem as common. Furthermore, English seems to be an oddity in that you don't need to say _every time that_ or _every time when_  when _every time_ is used with a verb. For example, in French you say _chaque fois que je_ and in German you say _jedes Mal, wenn ich_. So, in conclusion in Icelandic you would say _í hvert skipti sem ég_. 

Hjálpar þetta?


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## Le Viking islandais

The word "Alltaf"(always) can also be used in this situation.

_Alltaf þegar ég heimsæki Björn er hann upptekinn_ - Every time I visit Björn, he is always busy

I'm not translating word for word here, but rather the whole sentence together. I don't translate the "always" before "busy" because there is no need for repetition, it would look really bad:

_"Alltaf þegar ég heimsæki Björn er hann alltaf upptekinn"_


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## Alxmrphi

Thanks for the tips guys, I didn't realise the *sinn *construction was so dated, but I did read it in a bit of an ancient book.. alltaf would work well I think, I can see that now, thanks for the tip! 

LVS... what do you think about Tazz's "*í hvert skipti*", does that work just as well?
I'm just curious as to what sounds the most / least normal, what options I have to work with etc.

Takk kærlega


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## Le Viking islandais

The example Tazzler gave can also be used but to me my example sounds more normal to say.


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## kepulauan

_A__lltaf þegar_ would not be appropriate in more formal writing. _Í hvert skipti/sinn sem..._ is the proper way.


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## Alxmrphi

I'm glad I've got a formal & colloquial option, it takes a while to be able to judge informal and formal speech when learning a new language, it's still very alien to me in Icelandic but this is a good lesson for me.

So in an essay I could write = _Í hvert skipti_
In informal speech talking with friends =_ Alltaf þegar_

__ I think this distinction is also existant in Italian (ogni volta / sempre quando) with the same connotations in register. 

Velkominn til WR pollodia!
Það er mjög góður að sjá fleiri Íslendinga hérna!


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## kepulauan

Thanks. I've been browsing through the Arabic section for a few days and might as well contribute.


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## Pont neuf

Sérhver is not used much in modern Icelandic spoken or colloquial language. It is rather formal and would hardly be suitable in the situation you are describing. 

'Every time I visit Björn, he is always busy' could be translated simply as 'Í hvert skipti sem ég heimsæki Björn, þá er hann upptekinn' or 'Alltaf þegar ég heimsæki Björn er hann upptekinn' you could even just say ´Þegar ég heimsæki Björn er hann ætíð upptekinn' as the meaning is similar.


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## kepulauan

This may be clearer if you use the wrd _each_ instead of every in the initial sentence: _each time I visit Björn_. In English these words follow usage that i can't figure out.

_hver - each_ : one of many
_hvor - each_ : one of few
_sérhver - every_ : one of many

As in _"each time I wake up", "each of my two kids is sick", "every man for himself in the forthcoming battle!"._


If you want to emphazise the initial sentence things start to sound strange to me:

_í hvert skipti sem ég... - each time I...
í hvert einasta skipti sem ég... - every single sime I...

each single time_ sounds a bit weird or doesn't it? It seems that modern Icelandic has just removed _every_ to simplify.


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## Alxmrphi

Yeah understanding '_each_' and '_every_' when I was doing my ESOL training was very difficult, I only knew the answers to basic questions through native intuition, every explanation I read didn't completely satisfy me. (each explanation... ? )

Thanks for your tips pollodia, especially about *hvor / hver*, I wasn't aware of this distinction (books / dictionaries only limit themselves to translates without usage notes!)

You're right about 'each single time', I don't think any native English person would say it, but what you actually wrote was '_every_' (I don't think you meant to) but I guess your subconscious knew it was the correct and idiomatic thing to say (it sounds fine)


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