Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Hádegi er fullkominn tími fyrir stuttan göngutúr.

Hádegi is the dictionary (indefinite) form of “midday.” Icelandic marks definiteness by a suffix (–inn on masculine nouns), but when you talk about midday as a general time period, you use the indefinite form. If you really wanted “the midday,” you could say hádeginn, but here we mean simply “midday” is a perfect time.

After the verb er (“is”), why are both fullkominn and tími in the nominative case?

The copular verb vera (“to be”) takes a predicate nominative: both the subject and its complement stay in the nominative. So Hádegi (subject) and fullkominn tími (predicate) are both nominative singular.

What is the gender of tími, and how does that determine the form fullkominn?

Tími is a masculine noun. In Icelandic, adjectives agree with their noun’s gender, number, and case. Since tími is masculine singular nominative, the adjective fullkominn appears in its masculine singular nominative form (the strong declension), which ends in -inn.

What case does the preposition fyrir govern, and why is stuttan göngutúr in the accusative?

The preposition fyrir meaning “for” always takes the accusative case in Icelandic. Consequently, the noun phrase stuttur göngutúr (“short walk”) becomes accusative masculine singular: stuttan (adjective) + göngutúr (noun).

What is the structure and gender of the compound noun göngutúr?

Göngutúr is a compound of ganga (“to walk”) + túr (“trip”). Together it means “walk” or “walking trip.” It’s a masculine noun, which is why it takes masculine endings (e.g. accusative göngutúr under fyrir).

Where does the stress fall, and how would you roughly pronounce the sentence?

Icelandic words are stressed on the first syllable. An approximate phonetic rendering is: HAU-de-gi er FULL-ko-minn TÍ-mi FYR-ir STUT-tan GÖN-gu-túr.