Word
Hún flokkar plastumbúðirnar og glerumbúðirnar meðan við berum málminn.
Meaning
She sorts the plastic packaging and the glass packaging while we carry the metal.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hún flokkar plastumbúðirnar og glerumbúðirnar meðan við berum málminn.
við
we
hún
she
og
and
meðan
while
Questions & Answers about Hún flokkar plastumbúðirnar og glerumbúðirnar meðan við berum málminn.
Why are plastumbúðirnar and glerumbúðirnar written as single words?
Because Icelandic very often forms compound nouns as one word.
- plast + umbúðirnar → plastumbúðirnar
- gler + umbúðirnar → glerumbúðirnar
The last part, umbúðir, is the main noun, and the first part tells you what kind of packaging it is: plastic packaging, glass packaging.
A useful rule:
- In Icelandic compounds, the last element is the grammatical head.
- So the whole word behaves like umbúðir in gender, number, and inflection.
Why is umbúðir plural here? English often says packaging as a singular word.
That is a very common point of confusion. Umbúðir is normally a plural noun in Icelandic. It often means packaging, wrappings, or containers/packing material.
So even when English uses singular packaging, Icelandic often uses plural umbúðir.
That means:
- plastumbúðirnar = the plastic packaging
- glerumbúðirnar = the glass packaging
So the plural form does not necessarily mean several separate packages in the English sense. It is just how Icelandic commonly expresses this idea.
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