Mission—Team—FAQ—Privacy—Terms—Sponsors—Grammar—Typing Course—Donate

© 2026 Elon Automation B.V.

Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Merkipenninn er svartur. - The marker pen is black.

Hardcore Icelandic
/Helping friends move to a new home
/Merkipenninn er svartur.

Merkipenninn er svartur.

Word

Merkipenninn er svartur.

Meaning

The marker pen is black.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Icelandic

Lesson

Helping friends move to a new home

Breakdown of Merkipenninn er svartur.

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Icelandic grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Icelandic now

Questions & Answers about Merkipenninn er svartur.

What does merkipenninn break down into?

It is merkipenni + -inn.

merkipenni = marker pen / felt-tip pen
-inn = the (the definite article, attached to the end)

So merkipenninn means the marker.

Why is the attached to the noun instead of being a separate word?

In Icelandic, the definite article is very often added to the end of the noun as a suffix.

So:

merkipenni = a marker / marker
merkipenninn = the marker

This is one of the first big differences from English. Icelandic can use a separate word for definiteness in some contexts, but in simple sentences like this, the suffixed article is the normal choice.

Why is it er?

Er is the present tense, 3rd person singular form of að vera (to be).

So:

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

Since merkipenninn is a singular thing, Icelandic uses er: the marker is.

Why is the adjective svartur and not svart?

Because Icelandic adjectives agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.

Here, merkipenninn is:

masculine
singular
nominative

So the adjective also has to be masculine singular nominative:

masculine: svartur
feminine: svört
neuter: svart

That is why the sentence uses svartur.

How do we know that merkipenni is masculine?

You usually learn the gender as part of the noun’s basic form. The noun merkipenni is masculine.

A very common clue is the ending -i, which many masculine nouns have, though this is not a perfect rule for every noun in Icelandic.

Because merkipenni is masculine, both the article and the adjective follow masculine patterns:

merkipenninn
svartur

What is the dictionary form of the words in this sentence?

The dictionary forms are:

merkipenni = marker
að vera = to be
svartur = black

So when looking words up, you would usually not search for merkipenninn, but for merkipenni. And you would not search for er, but for að vera.

Why does svartur come after er instead of before the noun?

Here svartur is a predicate adjective, not an adjective directly attached to the noun.

The structure is:

Merkipenninn = subject
er = verb
svartur = description after to be

So the sentence literally works like:

The marker is black.

If you wanted to say the black marker, then the adjective would go with the noun instead:

svarti merkipenninn = the black marker

So these are two different structures:

Merkipenninn er svartur. = The marker is black.
Svarti merkipenninn ... = The black marker ...

What case is merkipenninn in here?

It is in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence.

In a sentence with að vera (to be), the subject is typically nominative, and the predicate adjective also matches it. So both the noun phrase and svartur are in nominative here.

That is why you get:

merkipenninn — nominative singular definite
svartur — nominative singular masculine

How would this change if the noun were feminine or neuter?

The verb er would stay the same if the subject is singular, but the adjective would change to match the noun’s gender.

For example:

masculine: Merkipenninn er svartur.
feminine: Bókin er svört. = The book is black.
neuter: Borðið er svart. = The table is black.

So the important thing to notice is that black changes form in Icelandic.

How is Merkipenninn er svartur pronounced?

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

Merkipenninn ≈ MERK-ee-pen-nin
er ≈ ehr
svartur ≈ SVAR-tur

A few useful notes:

r is usually trilled or tapped
nn in Icelandic has a distinctive pronunciation that may not sound exactly like English nn
stress usually falls on the first syllable of Icelandic words

So the main stress pattern is:

MER-kipenninn
ER
SVAR-tur

Can the word order change?

Yes, but Merkipenninn er svartur is the normal, straightforward order.

It follows the basic pattern:

Subject + Verb + Complement

Icelandic can sometimes move elements around for emphasis or style, but for a simple beginner sentence, this is the standard and most natural order.

So if you are learning, this is the pattern to remember first:

X er Y = X is Y

Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io