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Questions & Answers about Annar vinur borðar brauð.
What does Annar mean in Annar vinur borðar brauð?
Annar is the masculine, nominative, singular form of the adjective/pronoun annarr, which means “another” or “the other.” In this sentence it means “another friend.”
Does Annar here mean “another friend” or “the other (of two) friend”?
It can mean both. Without context, annarr is ambiguous between “another” (one more, in addition) and “the other” (the second of two). Context tells you whether you’re adding a new friend or referring to the other one in a pair.
Why is it Annar and not Annað or Annars?
The form of annarr changes to agree with gender, number and case:
- Annar is masculine nominative singular
- Annað would be neuter nominative/accusative singular
- Annars is the masculine/neuter genitive singular
Since vinur is masculine nominative singular (the subject), we use annar → annar.
How does Annar agree with vinur?
In Icelandic, adjectives and pronouns must match their nouns in:
- Gender (masculine/feminine/neuter)
- Number (singular/plural)
- Case (nominative/accusative/genitive/dative)
Here vinur is masculine, singular, nominative, so annarr takes the corresponding form annar.
Why isn’t there a word for “a” or “the” before vinur or brauð?
Icelandic has no separate indefinite article like a; indefiniteness is shown by the absence of a definite ending.
If you want “the friend”, you’d say vinurinn (with the definite suffix -inn).
Similarly, brauð is indefinite here; brauðið would be “the bread.”
Why does the verb borðar end in -ar?
Borðar is the present tense, 3rd person singular of borða (“to eat”). In most Icelandic verbs the ending -ar marks he/she/it in the present:
eg borða
þú borðar
hann/hún borðar
Why is brauð unchanged? What case and number is it?
Brauð is a neuter noun whose nominative and accusative singular forms are identical: brauð. Here it’s the accusative singular (direct object). Neuter nouns often show no ending in these cases.
How would you say “the other friend eats the bread” in Icelandic?
You’d use the definite forms of both noun and adjective: Hinn vinurinn borðar brauðið.
- hinn = the (masculine) other
- vinurinn = the friend (definite)
- brauðið = the bread (definite)