Ekkert er eilíft.

Ekkert is an indefinite pronoun here, and it functions as the subject of the sentence.

It is the neuter singular form of enginn, which means no / none / nobody / nothing, depending on context. When the neuter form ekkert stands on its own like this, it usually means nothing.

So in Ekkert er eilíft, ekkert = nothing.

It is neuter because Icelandic uses the neuter singular form when referring to no thing in a general, non-personal sense.

Compare the forms of enginn:

• enginn = no one / nobody, masculine
• engin = no one / nobody, feminine
• ekkert = nothing, neuter

So the neuter form is the one that naturally gives the meaning nothing.

Er is the 3rd person singular present tense of vera, the verb to be.

So:

• vera = to be
• er = is

It is singular because ekkert is treated as a singular subject, just like English nothing is rather than nothing are.

Because eilíft has to agree with ekkert.

The dictionary form of the adjective is eilífur, meaning eternal. But Icelandic adjectives change form to match gender, number, and case.

Here, the subject ekkert is:

• neuter
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective also appears in the neuter singular nominative form:

• eilífur = masculine
• eilíf = feminine
• eilíft = neuter

That is why the sentence has eilíft, not eilífur or eilíf.

Both are nominative singular neuter here.

• ekkert is nominative because it is the subject
• eilíft is nominative because it is a predicate adjective after vera

This is an important Icelandic pattern: after vera, predicate adjectives normally agree with the subject and appear in the nominative.

So the structure is basically:

• subject: ekkert
• verb: er
• predicate adjective: eilíft

Because eilíft is not directly attached to a noun here. It is a predicate adjective, the same kind of structure as in English sentences like:

• The sky is blue
• Life is hard
• Nothing is eternal

In Icelandic, this kind of adjective normally comes after the verb:

• Ekkert er eilíft

If the adjective were used attributively inside a noun phrase, it would come before the noun, but that is not what is happening here.

This is a very common question.

• ekkert = nothing / no thing
• ekki = not

So:

• Ekkert er eilíft = Nothing is eternal
• Þetta er ekki eilíft = This is not eternal

In other words:

• ekkert is a pronoun or determiner
• ekki is an adverb of negation

They are related in meaning, but they do different grammatical jobs.

Yes, but Ekkert er eilíft is the most neutral and natural order.

You could also move another part of the sentence to the front for emphasis. For example:

• Eilíft er ekkert

That sounds more marked, poetic, or emphatic, roughly like Eternal is nothing or Nothing is eternal with strong emphasis.

Icelandic is a verb-second language, so when another element comes first, the finite verb still stays in the second position.

You can also make a question:

• Er ekkert eilíft? = Is nothing eternal?

It is singular.

Even though it refers to the absence of all things, grammatically it behaves like a singular pronoun, just as nothing does in English.

That is why the verb is singular:

• ekkert er
• not ekkert eru

A rough English-friendly approximation is:

EHK-kert er AY-livt

A few notes:

• kk in ekkert does not sound exactly like ordinary English k
• the r is Icelandic, usually tapped or trilled more than in English
• ei in eilíft sounds like ay
• the pronunciation is only approximate if written in English spelling

So the approximation helps, but it will not be perfectly exact.