Questions & Answers about Glerumbúðirnar eru hreinar.
Because Icelandic uses compounds very freely.
glerumbúðirnar can be broken down like this:
- gler = glass
- umbúðir = packaging, wrappings, containers
- -nar = the definite article ending here
So Icelandic packs the whole idea into one compound noun instead of writing separate words the way English often does.
It is attached to the noun.
In Icelandic, the is very often a suffix rather than a separate word. In glerumbúðirnar, the ending -nar means the.
So:
- glerumbúðir = glass packaging / glass containers
- glerumbúðirnar = the glass packaging / the glass containers
Because the subject is plural.
- er = is
- eru = are
Here, glerumbúðirnar is grammatically plural, so Icelandic uses eru.
That is true even if English might sometimes use a singular-looking translation such as the packaging is clean. Icelandic still treats umbúðir as plural in this sentence.