{"id":4091,"date":"2015-04-02T17:31:32","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T17:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=4091"},"modified":"2015-04-02T18:17:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T18:17:21","slug":"fyrir-or-four-uses-for-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2015\/04\/02\/fyrir-or-four-uses-for-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Fyrir, or four uses for ‘for’."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve recently received two comments regarding the use of the preposition fyrir<\/em><\/strong> and since the topic needs quite a bit of\u00a0elaborating I decided to write a whole blog entry for it. Fyrir<\/em> is one of those sneaky\u00a0words that look deceptively easy to use. It’s like the English “for”, right?\u00a0Yes – and no – and then it’s quite a many other things as well.<\/p>\n

I would also group it\u00a0among those annoying prepositions that demand you to use cases but don’t actually say which one, so you’ll end up having to learn quite a lot by heart. The best advice I can give is that if the topic seems to be dynamic, movement-including, you go for \u00feolfall<\/em>\/accusative, in other times \u00fe\u00e1gufall<\/em>\/dative. Rest assured there will be many exceptions and times when you really question the logic of the language…\u00a0Much depends on what situation fyrir<\/em> is used in too, so let’s try to put the\u00a0most typical options\u00a0in categories according to what purpose they’re used for. Note though that these categories will be very roughly drawn, so I’m also going to include a link to a more thorough list after the basics.<\/p>\n

\"fyrir001\"<\/a>

Just a few ways of translating fyrir.<\/p><\/div>\n

Place<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vi\u00f0 siglum fyrir<\/strong> Vestmannaeyjum.<\/em> (= We sail in front of Westmanislands.)<\/p>\n

Hann er fyrir<\/strong> m\u00e9r!<\/em> (= He’s in my way!)<\/p>\n

Here the translation is “in front of sth<\/strong>“. Occasionally just a fyrir<\/em>\u00a0won’t be enough, you’ll have to string two prepositions together to create the same effect such as:<\/p>\n

\u00c9g st\u00f3\u00f0 fyrir<\/strong> framan<\/strong>\u00a0\u00edssk\u00e1pinn<\/em>. (= I stood in front of the fridge.)<\/p>\n

The bad news for an Icelandic learner is that you’ll have to learn these ones by heart. The best option is to simply catch them as they come, I’m afraid. One tip though – whenever you see the preposition combo fyrir -an<\/em> you know it always demands an accusative!<\/p>\n

Other fyrir -an combos are, for example:<\/p>\n

fyrir utan<\/em> = outside
\nfyrir innan<\/em> = inside
\nfyrir ofan<\/em> = above
\nfyrir aftan<\/em> = behind
\nfyrir sunnan\/nor\u00f0an\/vestan\/austan<\/em> = on the south\/north\/west\/east side.<\/p>\n

More examples of fyrir used to point towards place:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hann f\u00e9ll\u00a0fyrir<\/strong> bor\u00f0.<\/em> (= He fell overboard.)<\/p>\n

Vi\u00f0\u00a0settum t\u00f6skurnar \u00fat fyrir<\/strong> dyrnar.<\/em> (= We put the bags outside the door.)<\/p>\n

\"h063\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Time<\/strong><\/p>\n

When used to describe time fyrir<\/em> translates always as “before<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

\u00c9g flutti hinga\u00f0 fyrir<\/strong>\u00a0tveimum \u00e1rum<\/em>. (= I moved here two\u00a0years ago.)<\/p>\n

Kertasn\u00edkir kemur fyrir<\/strong> j\u00f3lin<\/em>. (= Candle Thief [one of the Yule Lads] arrives before Christmas)<\/p>\n

Hann f\u00e6ddist\u00a0fyrir<\/strong> t\u00edmann<\/em>. (= He was born\u00a0prematurely.)<\/p>\n

This is perhaps the easiest one to learn and remember because it stays the same. If you want to say something happens “after” something the preposition for it is eftir<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fyrir as for<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ger\u00f0u \u00fea\u00f0 fyrir<\/strong> mig<\/em>. (= Do it for me.)<\/p>\n

\u00c9g keypti korti\u00f0 fyrir<\/strong> 100kr<\/em>. (= I bought the map for 100kr.)<\/p>\n

V\u00edn er\u00a0ekki fyrir<\/strong> b\u00f6rn<\/em>! (= Alcohol is\u00a0not for children!)<\/p>\n

H\u00fan\u00a0f\u00f3r\u00a0fyrir<\/strong> hann.<\/em> (= She went for him\/in his place.)<\/p>\n

\u00de\u00fa getur nota\u00f0 rumi\u00f0 mitt fyrir<\/strong> trampol\u00edn<\/em>. (= You can use my bed\u00a0for a trampoline.)<\/p>\n

\"4090\"<\/a>

A not-so-graceful landing. No beds were harmed in progress of taking this photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

…oh dear. As you can see fyrir can indeed take the place of the preposition “for<\/strong>” in many of its meanings, which in a way makes things harder because it doesn’t always work, just often enough to lull you into a false sense of security. Then you think you can use fyrir for saying “I knitted the sweater for you”… but no, that one would actually go “\u00c9g prj\u00f3na\u00f0i peysuna handa \u00fe\u00e9r<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

One good place to start studying the various ways fyrir is used would be at the Icelandic Online Dictionary (link<\/a>), it’s\u00a0the list I mentioned earlier on. It’s\u00a0quite thorough and though you’ll definitely run into more ways of using the preposition this list will take you a long way.<\/p>\n

Fyrir as a part of a word<\/strong><\/p>\n

Icelandic is truly the language of compound words and fyrir is one that gets lots of use in them. Now that you know some meanings for the preposition itself the following words might actually make perfect sense. I challenge you all, dead readers, to try to\u00a0translate some words from this list literally, as in word to word, and see how the ideas\u00a0behind creating the words work. I’ll post the right answers with the next week’s entry.<\/p>\n

fyrirbo\u00f0i<\/em> = omen
\nfyrirburi<\/em> = premature baby
\nfyrirbyggja<\/em> = prevent
\nfyrirf\u00f3lk<\/em> = high society
\nfyrirfram<\/em> = in advance
\nfyrirgangur<\/em> = boisterousness
\nfyrirgefa<\/em> = forgive
\nfyrirhuga<\/em> = a plan
\nfyrirhyggja<\/em> = forethought
\nfyrirlesari<\/em> = lecturer
\nfyrirm\u00e6li<\/em> = instructions
\nfyrirrennari<\/em> = predecessor
\nfyrirs\u00e1t<\/em> = ambush
\nfyrirs\u00e6ta<\/em> = model, sitter for a portrait
\nfyrirtekt<\/em> = whim
\nfyrirvari<\/em> = notice, warning; taka me\u00f0 fyrirvara<\/em> = take with a grain of salt
\nfyrir\u00e6tlun<\/em> = intention<\/p>\n

And of course there’s the most important use of fyrir<\/em>… Takk fyrir!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

I’ve recently received two comments regarding the use of the preposition fyrir and since the topic needs quite a bit of\u00a0elaborating I decided to write a whole blog entry for it. Fyrir is one of those sneaky\u00a0words that look deceptively easy to use. It’s like the English “for”, right?\u00a0Yes – and no – and then…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":4110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[91175],"tags":[91405,10208,6,91386,10341],"class_list":["post-4091","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-grammar","tag-advanced","tag-beginner","tag-grammar","tag-icelandic-lessons","tag-intermediate"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4091"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4112,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4091\/revisions\/4112"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}