Skólinn í borginni er stór.

The school in the city is big.

Breakdown of Skólinn í borginni er stór.

• vera: to be
• stór: big
• skólinn: the school
• í: in
• borginni: the city

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?

Here stór is used predicatively (linked by the verb er “is”). Predicative adjectives take the strong nominative form to agree with the subject’s gender and number. Skólinn is masculine singular, and the strong nom. masc. sg. of stór is simply stór.

How would I say “the big school in the city” with big as an attributive adjective?

Attributive adjectives modifying a definite noun use the weak declension.
“the big school in the city” → stóri skólinn í borginni
(Note stóri instead of stór.)

What are the genders of skóli and borg, and how can I tell?

• skóli is masculine (its definite nom. sg. is skólinn).
• borg is feminine (its definite nom. sg. is borgin).
  You generally learn each noun’s gender together with the word.

Does the prepositional phrase í borginni alter Icelandic word order here?

No — the entire subject NP is skólinn í borginni, and Icelandic is a V2 language: the finite verb er (“is”) must stay in second position. The NP counts as one constituent, so er still follows it, then comes the predicate adjective.

How would I say “a school in the city is big” using the indefinite article?

Use indefinite noun forms:

• Skóli (indef. nom. sg.)
• í borginni (still def. because “the city” is specific; change to í borg only if you mean “in a city”)
• er stór
  Examples:
  • Skóli í borginni er stór. (“A school in the city is big.”)
  • Skóli í borg er stór. (“A school in a city is big.”)