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Questions & Answers about Veitingastaðurinn er líflegur.
How is veitingastaðurinn formed and what are its parts?
Veitingastaðurinn is a compound made of three elements:
• veitinga- (“serving” or “catering,” from the verb veita, “to serve,” plus the noun-forming -ing)
• staður (“place”)
• -inn (the definite article suffix for masculine singular nominative, “the”)
Why doesn’t Icelandic use a separate word for “the” here?
Icelandic marks definiteness with a suffix on the noun rather than an independent word. For masculine singular nouns in the nominative case, that suffix is -inn (as in veitingastaðurinn).
What gender and case is veitingastaðurinn, and how do I know?
It’s masculine and in the nominative case.
• Masculine nouns often end in -ur in the indefinite form (here veitingastaður).
• It’s nominative because it functions as the subject of the verb er.
What is er, and how is it used?
er is the 3rd-person singular present tense of vera (“to be”). It works like English is, linking the subject (veitingastaðurinn) to the predicate adjective (líflegur).