Predicate Nominals and Predicate Adjectives

When you say "X is Y" — "he is a teacher," "the books are expensive," "she is Icelandic" — the word after the verb is a predicate, and Icelandic treats it with two precise rules. A predicate noun stands in the nominative and, for professions and nationalities, appears bare — no article. A predicate adjective takes the strong declension and agrees with the subject in gender, number, and case. This page is about the syntax of the slot after the copula: which case fills it, whether an article belongs there, and why a predicate adjective is strong even when the subject is as definite as can be. (The copula verbs themselves and the full adjective paradigms have their own pages; here we focus on what goes in the predicate slot and in what shape.)

Linking verbs assign the nominative

A small set of verbs — vera ("be"), verða ("become"), heita ("be named"), kallast ("be called") — are linking verbs: they equate the subject with the predicate rather than acting on an object. Because the predicate is the subject (in a sense), it takes the same case the subject has: the nominative. This is unlike ordinary transitive verbs, which assign accusative, dative, or genitive to their objects.

Contrast this with a verb like sjá ("see"), which would put its object in the accusative (Ég sé kennarann). A linking verb never does that — its complement stays nominative because it renames the subject rather than receiving the action.

Predicate professions and nationalities: bare nominative, no article

When the predicate noun names a profession, role, or nationality, Icelandic uses the bare noun — with no equivalent of English "a/an." English insists on "she is a doctor"; Icelandic says simply Hún er læknir. The reason is conceptual: a profession after the copula is a category label, a way of classifying the subject, not a count of "one out of many." Bare nouns express category membership; adding an article would make it a count.

Note the split in the last example: nationality words come in two shapes. As an adjective (íslensk, enskur, danskur) they agree with the subject; as a noun of nationality (Íslendingur, "an Icelander") they are bare nominative. Both avoid the English article.

Predicate adjectives are STRONG — even with a definite subject

Now the rule that surprises learners most, and the one competitors most often get wrong. A predicate adjective takes the strong declension and agrees with the subject — and it does so even when the subject is definite. This breaks the pattern you may have learned for attributive adjectives, where a definite noun pulls the adjective into the weak form.

The principle is this: predication is not modification. An adjective that modifies a noun inside a noun phrase ("the expensive books," dýru bækurnar) is weak when the phrase is definite. But an adjective in the predicate ("the books are expensive," bækurnar eru dýrar) is not part of the subject's noun phrase at all — it is a separate statement about the subject — so the definiteness of the subject is irrelevant. Predicate adjectives are reliably strong.

So even though bækurnar is as definite as a noun gets (it carries the suffixed article), the predicate adjective is the strong dýrar, not the weak dýru. This is exactly the place where the strong form is guaranteed, which makes the predicate slot a reliable anchor: if it's after the copula and describing the subject, it's strong.

Agreement: gender, number, and the neuter -t

The predicate adjective agrees with the subject in gender and number (the case is nominative, since it describes the nominative subject). The strong nominative endings are -ur (masc.) / -∅ (fem.) / -t (neut.) in the singular, with their own plural forms. The neuter -t is worth singling out because it shows up constantly — for neuter nouns and for mixed-gender or generic groups.

A subtlety for the neuter: when the adjective stem ends in a doubled consonant or in certain clusters, the neuter -t changes the spelling — gott (not góðt) from góður, kalt from kaldur. Those spelling shifts belong to the adjective-declension page; here, just register that the neuter is the -t form.

Common Mistakes

Do not import English "a." The bare noun is the category label; einn kennari counts "one teacher," which is not the meaning.

The weak dýru belongs inside a noun phrase (dýru bækurnar, "the expensive books"). In the predicate, after eru, the adjective is strong: dýrar. Predication is not modification.

Agree in gender. Hús is neuter, so "old" is the neuter strong form gamalt, not the masculine gamall.

The same article error, now with the count reading made obvious. Einn læknir literally counts one doctor.

A predicate nationality adjective takes the bare strong form íslensk; the definite-looking íslenskan is wrong here (that ending belongs to modification, e.g. íslenska konan, "the Icelandic woman").

Key Takeaways

• Linking verbs — vera, verða, heita, kallast — assign the nominative to the predicate, not an object case.
• A predicate profession or nationality noun is the bare nominative — no article (Hann er kennari).
• A predicate adjective is strong and agrees with the subject — bækurnar eru dýrar — even when the subject is definite, because predication is not modification.
• The strong nominative endings are -ur / -∅ / -t (m./f./n.) with plural forms; the neuter -t (gott, kalt) appears constantly.
• The predicate slot is the most reliable place to find the strong form — a useful anchor for the whole adjective system.