Grilltöngin er við gasgrillið.

The ending -in is the suffixed definite article, meaning the.

So:

• grilltöng = barbecue tongs / a barbecue tong
• grilltöngin = the barbecue tongs

In Icelandic, the is usually attached to the end of the noun instead of being written as a separate word like in English.

Because grilltöng is a feminine noun, its definite singular nominative form is grilltöngin.

This is a very common question for English speakers.

In this sentence, Icelandic treats grilltöng as a singular noun, so the verb is singular:

• er = is
• eru = are

So Icelandic says literally something like the grill-tongs is by the gas grill.

This happens because languages do not always agree on whether an object like tongs, scissors, or glasses is grammatically singular or plural. English uses a plural form, but Icelandic often uses a singular noun here.

Here við means by, next to, near, or at.

So við gasgrillið means that the tongs are located by the gas grill.

It does not necessarily mean they are touching it. It usually just gives the location.

Also, við can have other meanings in other contexts, so learners often need to judge it from the sentence.

Just like -in in grilltöngin, the ending -ið is also the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• gasgrill = a gas grill
• gasgrillið = the gas grill

The ending is different because gasgrill is a neuter noun, not a feminine noun.

So the sentence contains two definite nouns:

• grilltöngin = the barbecue tongs
• gasgrillið = the gas grill

Because Icelandic usually puts the definite article onto the end of the noun.

Compare:

• English: the grill tongs
• Icelandic: grilltöngin

and:

• English: the gas grill
• Icelandic: gasgrillið

This is one of the first big differences English speakers notice in Icelandic grammar.

In this sentence:

• grilltöngin is in the nominative because it is the subject of the sentence.
• gasgrillið is in the accusative because the preposition við takes the accusative.

A useful thing to notice is that with many neuter nouns, the nominative and accusative singular look the same. So even though gasgrillið is accusative here, it looks identical to the nominative form.

Yes. Both are compound nouns, and Icelandic uses compounds very freely.

• grilltöng = grill
  • töng
• gasgrill = gas
  • grill

The last part is usually the main noun, and the first part describes it.

So:

• grilltöng = a tong/tool used for grilling
• gasgrill = a grill that uses gas

If you know the parts, Icelandic compounds often become much easier to understand.

Yes. This is a very normal basic sentence pattern:

• Grilltöngin = subject
• er = verb
• við gasgrillið = prepositional phrase showing location

So it follows a simple pattern like:

Subject + verb + location

That makes this a very natural beginner sentence.

If you remove the definite article endings, you get the indefinite forms:

• grilltöng
• gasgrill

So possible indefinite versions would be:

• Grilltöng er við gasgrillið. = A barbecue tong / pair of tongs is by the gas grill.
• Grilltöngin er við gasgrill. = The barbecue tongs are by a gas grill.
• Grilltöng er við gasgrill. = A barbecue tong / pair of tongs is by a gas grill.

The main change is simply removing the article from the end of the noun.

No. That is another thing learners often wonder about.

In this sentence, við shows location: by / near the gas grill.

But in other sentences, við can have other meanings, depending on context, such as:

• against
• toward
• with
• part of fixed expressions

So it is best to learn the meaning of við sentence by sentence at first, rather than expecting one single English equivalent every time.