Ég borða kjötið.

I eat the meat.

Breakdown of Ég borða kjötið.

• ég: I
• borða: to eat
• kjötið: the meat

Questions & Answers about Ég borða kjötið.

What does Ég mean in this sentence?

Ég is the first person singular pronoun in Icelandic, meaning I. It functions as the subject of the sentence, just as I does in English.

What does borða indicate, and how is it conjugated?

Borða comes from the verb að borða, which means to eat. In this sentence, it is the present tense form for the first person singular, so it translates as eat (as in I eat). Icelandic verbs are conjugated according to person and number, and here the form matches the subject Ég.

What is the meaning of kjötið, and why does it have the ending -ið?

Kjötið means the meat. The base noun is kjöt, which means meat. In Icelandic, the definite article is expressed by adding a suffix to the noun. For neuter singular nouns like kjöt, the definite ending is -ið. Thus, adding -ið turns kjöt (indefinite, “meat”) into kjötið (definite, “the meat”).

Why is the definite article attached as a suffix in Icelandic rather than being a separate word like the in English?

Icelandic is an inflected language where the definite form of a noun is shown by adding a suffix instead of placing a separate word before the noun. For neuter nouns, the appropriate ending (in this case -ið) is added to mark definiteness, which is a common feature in several Germanic languages.

How does the sentence structure of Ég borða kjötið compare to standard English word order?

Both Icelandic and English typically use a Subject-Verb-Object order in simple sentences. In Ég borða kjötið, Ég is the subject, borða is the verb, and kjötið is the object. This similarity can make basic sentence construction more familiar to native English speakers learning Icelandic.