Heimaþjónustan byrjar á morgun.

The home care service starts tomorrow.

Breakdown of Heimaþjónustan byrjar á morgun.

• á morgun: tomorrow
• byrja: to start
• heimaþjónustan: the home care service

Questions & Answers about Heimaþjónustan byrjar á morgun.

Why is Heimaþjónustan written as one word?

Because Icelandic very often makes compound nouns by joining words together.

• heima- = home- / at home
• þjónusta = service

So heimaþjónusta is literally something like home-service. This is completely normal in Icelandic. English sometimes writes similar ideas as two words, with a hyphen, or as one word, but Icelandic usually prefers a single compound word.

What does the ending -an in Heimaþjónustan mean?

It marks the noun as definite, so it means the home service, not just home service.

A key Icelandic difference from English is that the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word:

• heimaþjónusta = home service
• heimaþjónustan = the home service

With feminine nouns ending in -a, this often shows up as -n attached at the end:

• þjónusta → þjónustan

What gender is heimaþjónusta, and how can I tell?

It is feminine.

In Icelandic compounds, the last part usually decides the gender. Here the last part is þjónusta, and þjónusta is a feminine noun. So the whole compound heimaþjónusta is feminine too.

That is also why the definite form is heimaþjónustan, following a common feminine pattern.