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Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Hurðarkarmurinn er mjór. - The doorframe is narrow.

Hardcore Icelandic
/Helping friends move to a new home
/Hurðarkarmurinn er mjór.

Hurðarkarmurinn er mjór.

Word

Hurðarkarmurinn er mjór.

Meaning

The doorframe is narrow.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Icelandic

Lesson

Helping friends move to a new home

Breakdown of Hurðarkarmurinn er mjór.

hurðarkarmurinn

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Questions & Answers about Hurðarkarmurinn er mjór.

Why is hurðarkarmurinn written as one word?

Because Icelandic makes very frequent use of compound nouns, and they are usually written as one word.

Here, hurðarkarmurinn is built like this:

hurðar- = door-
karmur = frame
-inn = the

So the whole word means the door frame.

This is very normal in Icelandic. English often writes similar ideas as two words, but Icelandic usually prefers one compound word.

Why is it hurðar- and not just hurð-?

The first part of the compound comes from hurð (door), but in this compound it appears as hurðar-, which is based on the genitive singular form hurðar.

That is very common in Icelandic compounds: the first noun often appears in a genitive or genitive-like linking form.

So:

hurð = a door
hurðar- = door's / door-

Literally, the structure is something like door's frame, though in natural English we just say door frame.

What does the ending -urinn mean?

It marks the noun as definite, meaning the.

In Icelandic, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word in front.

So:

hurðarkarmur = a door frame
hurðarkarmurinn = the door frame

The ending looks like -urinn here because the base noun is karmur, a masculine noun ending in -ur, and the definite form changes accordingly.

What gender is hurðarkarmur, and how do we know?

It is masculine.

A very useful rule in Icelandic compounds is that the last part usually decides the gender of the whole compound.

Here:

hurð is feminine
karmur is masculine
therefore hurðarkarmur is masculine

That matters because adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

Why is the adjective mjór and not mjói or some other form?

Because mjór is the masculine singular nominative form, and it agrees with hurðarkarmurinn.

In this sentence:

hurðarkarmurinn = masculine
singular
nominative

So the adjective also appears in the matching form:

mjór

A very important point: after vera (to be), Icelandic usually uses the adjective in its predicative form, which is typically the strong form.

So you say:

Hurðarkarmurinn er mjór. = The door frame is narrow.

But when the adjective comes directly before the noun, you would normally use the weak form:

mjói hurðarkarmurinn = the narrow door frame

That difference is one of the things English speakers often need to get used to.

What case is hurðarkarmurinn in?

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

The sentence structure is:

Hurðarkarmurinn = subject
er = verb
mjór = predicate adjective

With vera (to be), the predicate adjective also appears in the nominative, so mjór matches the subject in case as well as gender and number.

Why is er in the middle of the sentence?

Because this is the normal Icelandic pattern for a simple statement:

Subject + verb + complement

So:

Hurðarkarmurinn = the subject
er = is
mjór = narrow

That is the ordinary, neutral word order. Icelandic can move things around more than English in some contexts, but this sentence uses the standard basic order.

How do you pronounce hurðarkarmurinn er mjór?

A rough learner-friendly approximation is:

HUR-thar-kar-mu-rin er myohr

A few useful notes:

ð is like the th in this
r is usually rolled or tapped
ó is a long o sound
mj- in mjór sounds roughly like my-

Don’t worry if your pronunciation is not perfect at first. The most useful thing is to notice the main sounds and stress pattern.

How would I say this in the indefinite or in the plural?

A few useful related forms are:

hurðarkarmur = a door frame
Hurðarkarmur er mjór. = A door frame is narrow / The door frame is narrow in an indefinite or more general sense
hurðarkarmarnir = the door frames
Hurðarkarmarnir eru mjóir. = The door frames are narrow

Notice the changes:

singular er → plural eru
singular adjective mjór → plural masculine mjóir

This shows the normal Icelandic agreement pattern very clearly.

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