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Questions & Answers about Ég er viss.
What are the functions of Ég, er and viss in the sentence “Ég er viss”?
• Ég is the first-person singular pronoun (“I”).
• er is the present-tense form of the verb vera (“to be”).
• viss is an adjective meaning “sure” or “certain,” used predicatively after vera.
Why isn’t viss inflected (e.g. vissur) in “Ég er viss”?
Adjectives in predicative position with a copular verb take the strong declension agreeing in gender, number and case with the subject. The first-person pronoun ég doesn’t show gender, so the default nominative singular form of viss is simply viss.
How do you pronounce “Ég er viss”?
The approximate phonetic rendering is:
• Ég /jɛɣ/ (the initial é is [jɛ], g becomes a voiced fricative [ɣ])
• er /ɛr/
• viss /vɪs/
Is the word order in “Ég er viss” the same as in English “I am sure”?
Yes. Icelandic uses Subject–Verb–Predicate (S-V-C) for a copular construction, which directly parallels the English S-V-C “I am sure.”
Can you drop since doesn’t change for person?