Icelandic: það voru vs þar voru...

[gramster]

The two sentences "það voru engin ský" and "þar voru engin ský", can both be rendered in English as "There were no clouds". But are they really equivalent? Or is there a nuance here?

My guess is that with "það voru..." were talking about mere existence, which I might render in English as "No clouds could be seen", whereas with "þar voru..." were actually asserting something about some given location, which I might render in English as "No clouds could be seen in that spot" or maybe "...in that region of the sky."

Or are they actually equivalent?

Takk fyrir!

 

[Segorian]

Your guess is correct: the sentences are not equivalent. The former is correctly rendered as “There were no clouds”, while the latter means “There were no clouds there/in that spot”.

Both sentences are unlikely to be used, however. The idiomatic expression is (það er/sést) ekki ský, usually followed by á himni. Examples: “Það sést ekki ský á himni.” “Morguninn eftir var veðrið frábært, ekki ský á himni og blankalogn.”

 

[gramster]

Just came across this sentence:

"Það eru margar litlar búðir þar."

[from Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners (Teach Yourself) (p. 174). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.]

Would this be equivalent to ""Þar eru margar litlar búðir"?

I think in English this would be the difference between "There are many small shops there" and "Many small shops are there."

I think the second would be considered better stylistically because it obeys William Strunk Jr.'s famous exhortation to "omit needless words". Would that be true in Icelandic as well? Or is there some nuance I'm missing?

 

[Rafeind]

The difference is closer to the difference between "There are many small shops there" and "There, there are many small shops".