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Questions & Answers about Enginn fer heim.
What is Enginn in this sentence?
Enginn is an indefinite pronoun meaning “no one” or “nobody.” It negates the existence of any person as the subject.
Why do we use enginn instead of neinn or einn?
Icelandic has special negative indefinite pronouns—enginn (masculine), engin (feminine), and ekkert (neuter)—rather than forming negation by adding an “n” to einn. So enginn is the correct form for “no one.”
Why is the verb fer singular instead of fara?
Verbs in Icelandic agree with their subjects in number and person. Enginn is grammatically singular, so you use the 3rd-person singular form fer of the verb fara.
What is the function of heim here, and why is there no preposition like til?
Here heim is a directional adverb meaning “home.” In Icelandic you often don’t need a preposition before these adverbs (e.g., upp, niður, fram, heim); the direction is built into the adverb itself.
What case is Enginn in, and why?
Enginn is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence (“no one” is doing the going).
Could you say Enginn fer ekki heim?
No. Adding ekki would create a double negation (literally “no one does not go home”), which is ungrammatical in Icelandic. The negation is already contained in enginn.
How would you turn this into a question?
Invert verb and subject to form: Fer enginn heim? – “Is no one going home?”
What are the feminine and neuter equivalents of enginn, and when would you use them?
The feminine form is engin (“no woman/none” as subject), and the neuter is ekkert (“nothing”). For example:
- Engin fer heim. (No woman goes home.)
- Ekkert fer heim. (Nothing goes home.)