Móttökugjaldið á gámasvæðinu er hátt.

Icelandic very often forms nouns as compounds, where English would use two or more separate words.

Here, móttökugjaldið breaks down as:

• móttaka = reception, acceptance, intake
• gjald = fee, charge
• -ið = the for a neuter singular noun

So:

• móttökugjald = reception fee / intake fee
• móttökugjaldið = the reception fee

This is completely normal in Icelandic. Long compound nouns are very common.

The dictionary form is móttökugjald.

The form in the sentence, móttökugjaldið, is the nominative singular with the definite article attached, so it means the reception fee or the intake fee.

In Icelandic, the definite article is usually attached to the noun as a suffix, rather than written as a separate word like English the.

So:

• gjald = fee
• gjaldið = the fee

And with the whole compound:

• móttökugjald = reception fee
• móttökugjaldið = the reception fee

This is one of the first big differences English speakers notice in Icelandic.

Gámasvæðinu is in the dative singular.

The preposition á can take either:

• accusative for motion toward/onto something
• dative for location, when something is already there

In this sentence, the meaning is locational: the fee is at/on the container area, not moving to it. So Icelandic uses the dative:

• gámasvæði = container area
• á gámasvæði = on/at a container area
• á gámasvæðinu = on/at the container area

So the dative here is triggered by á used in a static location sense.

Here á is best understood as a location preposition, and in English it may be translated as on, at, or sometimes even in, depending on context.

Very literally, á often means on, but with places it can often sound more natural in English as at.

So á gámasvæðinu is something like:

• on the container area literally
• at the container site/area more naturally in English

This is a common issue for learners: Icelandic prepositions do not always line up neatly with English ones.

Because hátt agrees with móttökugjaldið, which is a neuter singular noun.

The adjective hár = high has different forms depending on gender, number, and case. In the nominative singular:

• hár = masculine
• há = feminine
• hátt = neuter

Since móttökugjald is neuter, the adjective must also be neuter:

• Móttökugjaldið er hátt. = The fee is high.

You usually learn the gender together with the noun. In dictionaries, Icelandic nouns are normally listed with gender information.

Here the noun gjald is neuter, and the compound móttökugjald keeps that gender, because the final part of the compound determines the gender.

That is an important rule:

• In compound nouns, the last element usually determines grammatical gender and inflection.

So because gjald is neuter, móttökugjald is also neuter.

It is also a compound noun plus the definite article and case ending.

It breaks down like this:

• gámi = container, dumpster, skip
• svæði = area, zone
• gámasvæði = container area / container site
• -inu = the dative singular definite ending for a neuter noun

So:

• gámasvæði = container area
• gámasvæðinu = at/on the container area

The basic structure is:

• subject: Móttökugjaldið
• prepositional phrase: á gámasvæðinu
• verb: er
• predicate adjective: hátt

So literally it is:

• The reception fee at the container area is high.

The phrase á gámasvæðinu is placed right after the noun because it tells you which fee we mean. It functions a bit like a qualifier attached to the noun phrase: the reception fee at the container area.

This is very natural word order in Icelandic.

Yes, that is possible, but it can shift the emphasis slightly.

• Móttökugjaldið á gámasvæðinu er hátt focuses first on the reception fee at the container area as a noun phrase.
• Móttökugjaldið er hátt á gámasvæðinu can sound more like the reception fee is high at the container area, with the location coming later.

Both are understandable, but the original version is a very natural way to identify the fee as the one connected with that place.

A rough pronunciation guide for an English speaker would be:

• Móttökugjaldið ≈ MOH-toh-kuh-gyal-thith
• á ≈ ow as in cow, but longer
• gámasvæðinu ≈ GAU-ma-svai-thi-nu
• er ≈ ehr
• hátt ≈ howht

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• ö is like a rounded vowel, somewhat like the vowel in French peur or German schön
• j in gjald sounds like y
• ð is like the th in this
• hv/tt and other consonant combinations can sound unfamiliar at first, so it is best to hear them from native audio if possible

It can be used more broadly than just physical height.

In this sentence, hátt means high in the sense of costly / expensive / large in amount. English does this too:

• a high fee
• high prices

So gjaldið er hátt means the fee is high, not that the fee is physically tall.

Here are the main dictionary forms:

• móttökugjaldið → móttökugjald = reception fee / intake fee
• á = on, at
• gámasvæðinu → gámasvæði = container area / container site
• er → vera = to be
• hátt → hár = high

This is a good habit in Icelandic: when you meet a sentence, try to identify the dictionary form of each word, because many forms change a lot depending on case, gender, number, and definiteness.