Icelandic: Ég veit hvað þú hefur gaman af því að borða!

gramster

gramster

Senior Member
North Carolina, USA
English - USA
What does this sentence actually mean?

„Ég veit hvað þú hefur gaman af því að borða!“

[From Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners (Teach Yourself) (p. 166). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.]

According to Google Translate, it means, "I know what you like to eat!", but Microsoft Translate renders it as "I know how much you enjoy eating!"

Also, the English version of the story gives, ‘I know how much you like to eat!’

[from Richards, Olly. Short Stories in English for Beginners (Teach Yourself) (p. 154). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.]

Takk fyrir!
 
    • "Ég veit" means "I know" and "að borða" is "to eat". "Að hafa gaman af e-u" is "to enjoy something/like (to do) something" (literal word for word translation is "have/get fun from something). So "Þú hefur gaman af því að borða" is "you enjoy eating".

    "hvað + lo." can mean "how much + adjective" for example in "Ég sé hvað þér þykir vænt um hana" = "I see how much you care about her/love her", "Ég man hvað þér fannst kakan vond/góð" = "I remember how good/bad you thought the cake tasted" or "Jón sagði mér hvað þú hafðir hátt" = "Jón told me how loud you were". (It is difficult making simple example sentences because it has to be an dependent sentence.) I am not sure why "gaman" here triggers the same structure as an adjective would but it does.

    Personally I think the best translation is "I know how much you enjoy eating" because that does not imply the knowledge is about the amount of food the other person likes to eat. The icelandic sentence is about the enjoyment of eating as such, and does not imply anything about the amount of food.
     
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