mig langar, mér finnst: verbs whose person sits in the accusative or dative, plus the placeholder það.
I can say what I want, need, feel and think using the impersonal patterns (Mig langar í kaffi; mér finnst þetta gott).
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Mig langar í eina með öllu.
I fancy a hot dog with everything.
Mér finnst íslenskan erfið en falleg.
I find Icelandic difficult but beautiful.
Okkur vantar mjólk og skyr fyrir morgundaginn.
We need milk and skyr for tomorrow.
Það rignir lárétt í dag.
It is raining horizontally today.
Achte auf die hervorgehobenen Teile. Was haben sie gemeinsam?
A large group of everyday Icelandic verbs puts the person in the accusative or the dative rather than the nominative. With some of them the sentence has no nominative at all; with others the thing experienced is nominative and the verb agrees with it.
| Þolfall | Merking | Þágufall | Merking |
|---|---|---|---|
| mig langar (í/að) | I want, I fancy | mér finnst | I think, it seems to me |
| mig vantar | I need, I lack | mér líkar (við) | I like |
| mig dreymir | I dream | mér leiðist | I am bored |
| mig minnir | I seem to recall | mér líður vel | I feel well |
| mig grunar | I suspect | mér er kalt | I am cold |
With the accusative group the verb is always third person singular, whoever the person is: mig langar, þig langar, hana langar, okkur langar. With finnast and líka it is different - the other noun is nominative and the verb agrees with it in number: Mér finnst þetta gott, but Mér finnast þessar bækur góðar; Mér líkar kaffið, but Mér líka þessir bílar.
Weather verbs need something in the first slot, and when nothing else claims it, það does: Það rignir. Það snjóar. Það er kalt úti. Front anything else and það disappears: Í dag rignir. Á morgun snjóar. What you cannot do is leave the slot empty - *Er kalt úti is not a sentence.
Many Icelanders say mér langar instead of mig langar. This is the well-known þágufallshneigð, dative leaning. It is common in speech and still corrected in writing, so recognise it but write mig langar.
Wende diese Grammatik in den Übungen des Kurses A2 an
ÜbungsaufgabenReaching for the dative with langa, vanta and dreyma because the experiencer feels like a dative: mig langar, not *mér langar. Icelanders make this slip too - it is þágufallshneigð - but it is corrected in writing. - Adding a nominative subject: *Ég langar í kaffi. - Leaving the first slot empty: *Er kalt úti instead of Það er kalt úti - or, with something fronted, Í dag er kalt úti. - Making the accusative-group verb agree in the plural: Okkur langar, not *Okkur langa. The opposite mistake belongs to finnast and líka, where the verb must agree: Mér líka þessir bílar, not *Mér líkar þessir bílar.
Mig langar í eina með öllu.
I fancy a hot dog with everything.
Accusative mig although the Russian equivalent is dative. Ein með öllu is the standard order at the pylsuvagn: mustard, remoulade, ketchup, raw and fried onion.
Mér finnst íslenskan erfið en falleg.
I find Icelandic difficult but beautiful.
Dative mér with finnast, matching the Russian dative exactly.
Okkur vantar mjólk og skyr fyrir morgundaginn.
We need milk and skyr for tomorrow.
vanta takes the accusative okkur, and the thing needed is also accusative.
Það rignir lárétt í dag.
It is raining horizontally today.
það fills the first slot because nothing else claims it. Front the time phrase and it goes: Í dag rignir lárétt. Rain that arrives horizontally is a standard Icelandic complaint.
Mig dreymdi Grímsey í nótt.
I dreamt about Grímsey last night.
dreyma keeps the accusative in the past too: mig dreymdi, never *mér dreymdi. Grímsey is the island on the Arctic Circle north of Akureyri.
Im Kurs üben
Wende diese Grammatik in den Übungen des Kurses A2 an