Húsið er fullt af bókum.

to be

Breakdown of Húsið er fullt af bókum.

• húsið: the house
• bókin: the book
• fullur: full

Questions & Answers about Húsið er fullt af bókum.

Why is the word húsið spelled with -ið at the end?

In Icelandic the definite article is a suffix. hús means “a house,” and when you make it definite (“the house”) you attach -ið because hús is a neuter noun. Hence húsið = “the house.”

Why is fullt used here and why does it end in -t?

fullur is an adjective meaning “full.” Adjectives in Icelandic agree in gender, number and case with the noun they describe. Since húsið is neuter singular in the nominative, fullur takes its neuter nominative ending -t, giving fullt.

What case is bókum, and why is that case used?

bókum is the dative plural form of bók (“book”). The preposition af (here meaning “of”) always governs the dative. Moreover, the fixed expression fullur af requires its complement to be in the dative. Hence bókum.

What does the preposition af mean here, and can we omit it?

Here af means “of” in the sense “full of.” You cannot omit it, because fullur by itself does not take a direct object. To express what something is full of, you always need af + dative.