Skólinn í borginni er stór.

to be

Breakdown of Skólinn í borginni er stór.

• stór: big
• skólinn: the school
• í: in

Questions & Answers about Skólinn í borginni er stór.

Why is there no separate word for the in Skólinn í borginni er stór?

Icelandic attaches the definite article as a suffix to the noun. Instead of a stand-alone the, you add -inn (for masculine) or -in/-ið (for feminine/neuter) to show definiteness. Here skóli (“school”) + -inn = skólinn (“the school”).

Why does borginni end in -inni rather than just -in?

That ending bundles dative case (because of the preposition í, when expressing location) with the definite article. borg is a feminine noun. Its dative-singular definite form is borginni.

What case does í require in í borginni, and when does it change?

• For static location (“in the city”), í takes the dative case → borginni.
• For movement into (“into the city”), í would take the accusative → í borgina.

Why is the adjective stór not inflected like in stóra or stórt?