gramster
Senior Member
English - USA
I would like to check my understanding of this sentence: "Það vantaði meiri mat á einstaka plánetu."
From Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Icelandic the fun way! (Teach Yourself) (p. 193). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.
I can sort of tell that in English it means something like "Each planet needed more food", or maybe "There was a need for more food on each planet", but is that correct? For example, Google Translate renders it as "There was a need for more assessment of the individual planet", which is totally wrong, given the context (see below), and Microsoft Translate produces, "We needed more food for an individual planet", which also seems wrong in the context, though less so.
Also, when I look up einstaka in an Icelandic-English dictionary, it appears to translate as unique, single, or occasional, so I'm wondering if there is something going on idiomatically here, and if so, I'm hoping to understand better what it is.
Another issue is that it appears that einstaka can either be indeclinable as is, or a declined form of the adjective einstakur, so, I'd like to understand what's going on there as well. Is the choice between them simply a matter of taste? Or is there some nuance in meaning?
Regarding the context of the above sentence, this is as follows:
"Til að byrja með var friður og velgengni. Hinir ýmsu heimar voru ekki aðskildir. Þeir unnu saman sem hópur. Þeir þörfnuðust hver annars. En ástandið breyttist. Íbúunum fjölgaði hratt. Það vantaði meiri mat á einstaka plánetu. Það vantaði meiri birgðir. Hver nýlenda vildi meira fyrir sjálfa sig. Þá byrjuðu vandræðin."
From Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Icelandic the fun way! (Teach Yourself) (p. 193). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.
Thanks!
From Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Icelandic the fun way! (Teach Yourself) (p. 193). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.
I can sort of tell that in English it means something like "Each planet needed more food", or maybe "There was a need for more food on each planet", but is that correct? For example, Google Translate renders it as "There was a need for more assessment of the individual planet", which is totally wrong, given the context (see below), and Microsoft Translate produces, "We needed more food for an individual planet", which also seems wrong in the context, though less so.
Also, when I look up einstaka in an Icelandic-English dictionary, it appears to translate as unique, single, or occasional, so I'm wondering if there is something going on idiomatically here, and if so, I'm hoping to understand better what it is.
Another issue is that it appears that einstaka can either be indeclinable as is, or a declined form of the adjective einstakur, so, I'd like to understand what's going on there as well. Is the choice between them simply a matter of taste? Or is there some nuance in meaning?
Regarding the context of the above sentence, this is as follows:
"Til að byrja með var friður og velgengni. Hinir ýmsu heimar voru ekki aðskildir. Þeir unnu saman sem hópur. Þeir þörfnuðust hver annars. En ástandið breyttist. Íbúunum fjölgaði hratt. Það vantaði meiri mat á einstaka plánetu. Það vantaði meiri birgðir. Hver nýlenda vildi meira fyrir sjálfa sig. Þá byrjuðu vandræðin."
From Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Icelandic the fun way! (Teach Yourself) (p. 193). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.
Thanks!