Ég nota mjóan penna þegar ég skrifa í kennslustund.

I use a thin pen when I write in class.

Breakdown of Ég nota mjóan penna þegar ég skrifa í kennslustund.

• ég: I
• skrifa: to write
• penni: the pen
• í: in
• þegar: when
• nota: to use
• mjór: thin
• kennslustund: the class

Questions & Answers about Ég nota mjóan penna þegar ég skrifa í kennslustund.

Why does the adjective mjóan end in -an instead of -ur or -r?

In Icelandic adjectives agree with the noun’s gender, number and case. Here penna (“pen”) is masculine singular in the accusative case (because it’s the direct object of nota). An indefinite adjective in masculine accusative singular uses the strong‐declension ending -an. Hence mjór → mjóan penna.

Why is the noun penna used here instead of penni?

Penni is the nominative form (used for subjects). As a direct object, penni shifts to the accusative case, whose masculine singular form is penna.

Why is there no separate word for “a” or “the” before mjóan penna? How would you say “the thin pen”?

Icelandic marks definiteness by adding a suffix to the noun.

• Indefinite: mjóan penna = “a thin pen”
• Definite: you attach -inn to penni and switch to the weak adjective declension:
  mjóa pennann = “the thin pen”

Why is í kennslustund in the dative?

The preposition í (“in”) takes the dative case when indicating a static location or time period (here “in class”). Kennslustund is a feminine noun: its dative singular adds -u (stund → stund-u), but since it’s a compound (kennslu + stund), the form surfaces simply as kennslustund.

Why is kennslustund written as one word?

Icelandic commonly forms compounds by joining two (or more) words into one. Kennsla (“teaching”) + stund (“period”) blend into kennslustund (“lesson” or “class period”).

Why does the subordinate clause start with þegar, and why does the verb skrifa follow in second position?

Þegar is a subordinating conjunction meaning “when.” In Icelandic subordinate clauses introduced by a conjunction, you still obey the verb‐second (V2) rule: the conjunction is first, the finite verb (skrifa) is second, then the subject (ég), etc.

Why does skrifa look exactly like the infinitive even though it means “I write”?

Some Icelandic verbs have identical forms for the infinitive and the present indicative first person singular. Skrifa is one of them. You tell if it’s present tense by context and by the presence of the subject pronoun ég.

Could you leave out the second ég in þegar ég skrifa í kennslustund?

Yes, subject pronouns are often dropped in Icelandic. However, because skrifa is identical in the infinitive and 1st‐person present, keeping ég prevents ambiguity and clearly marks the clause as “when I write ….”