Gatan fyrir framan húsið er róleg.

to be

Breakdown of Gatan fyrir framan húsið er róleg.

• húsið: the house
• rólegur: quiet
• gatan: the street

Questions & Answers about Gatan fyrir framan húsið er róleg.

Why does gatan end in -n?

In Icelandic the definite article is a suffix attached to the noun. Gata means “a street,” and when you make it definite (“the street”) for a feminine noun you add -n, yielding gatan.

How do I form the indefinite of gatan?

Drop the definite suffix. The indefinite nominative singular is simply gata, meaning “a street.”

What does fyrir framan mean, and why are there two words?

Fyrir is a preposition (“for/before”) and framan is an adverb (“in front”). Together they form the fixed prepositional phrase fyrir framan, which means “in front of.”

What case does the noun after fyrir framan take?

The prepositional phrase fyrir framan governs the accusative case. Thus the noun following it must appear in its accusative form.

Why does húsið end in -ið?

Hús is a neuter noun. In Icelandic, neuter singular definite nouns take -ið as the suffix. So “a house” is hús, and “the house” is húsið. Because it’s after fyrir framan, it’s in the accusative, but for neuter singular the accusative and nominative forms are identical.