Flutningakassinn er tómur.

Because Icelandic very often builds new nouns by combining words into a single compound.

Here, flutningakassi is a compound:

• flutninga- relates to moving / transport
• kassi means box

So flutningakassi is a moving box. Then -inn is added to make it definite, giving flutningakassinn = the moving box.

This kind of compounding is extremely common in Icelandic.

-inn is the definite article attached to the end of the noun. In other words, it gives the meaning of the.

So:

• flutningakassi = a moving box or just moving box
• flutningakassinn = the moving box

Unlike English, Icelandic usually does not put a separate word before the noun for the. It often adds it to the noun instead.

Icelandic normally has no indefinite article. That means there is usually no separate word corresponding to English a/an.

So:

• flutningakassi can mean a moving box
• context tells you whether it is indefinite, general, or specific

This is very normal in Icelandic and is something English speakers need to get used to.

Er means is.

It is the present tense, third-person singular form of að vera, which means to be.

So:

• ég er = I am
• þú ert = you are
• hann / hún / það er = he / she / it is

In this sentence, the subject is singular, so er is the correct form.

Because Icelandic adjectives change form to agree with the noun they describe.

Flutningakassinn is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective must also be masculine singular nominative:

• tómur = empty

Compare:

• masculine: kassinn er tómur
• feminine: taskan er tóm
• neuter: herbergið er tómt

This agreement is one of the most important features of Icelandic grammar.

Because in this sentence tómur is a predicate adjective, not an adjective directly attached to the noun.

The pattern is:

• subject + er + adjective

So this means:

• The moving box is empty

If you wanted to say the empty moving box, the adjective would go before the noun instead, and its form would change:

• tómi flutningakassinn

So the position of the adjective affects both the structure and often the form.

It is in the nominative singular.

That is because it is the subject of the sentence. In Icelandic, the subject of a basic sentence like this is usually in the nominative case.

The adjective tómur also matches that nominative singular form.

So this sentence is a good example of:

• nominative subject
• adjective agreement with the subject

The dictionary forms are:

• flutningakassi = moving box
• vera = to be
• tómur = empty

This is useful because Icelandic words often appear in changed forms in sentences:

• flutningakassinn is the definite form of flutningakassi
• er is a present-tense form of vera
• tómur is already the basic masculine singular nominative form

When learning Icelandic, it is very helpful to identify the dictionary form behind each sentence form.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

• Flutningakassinn ≈ FLUT-ning-a-kas-sin
• er ≈ ehr
• tómur ≈ TOH-mur

A few useful pronunciation points:

• The stress is usually on the first syllable in Icelandic words.
• ó is a long vowel sound, roughly like o in go, but purer.
• The r is pronounced clearly, often more strongly than in English.

So the sentence stress is roughly:

• FLUTningakassinn er TOHmur

Because Icelandic does not capitalize all nouns.

Unlike German, Icelandic only capitalizes:

• the first word of a sentence
• proper nouns

So Flutningakassinn is capitalized here only because it comes at the beginning of the sentence. If it were in the middle of a sentence, it would normally be written flutningakassinn.