Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Nágranni minn kemur í kaffihúsið með pakka. - My neighbor comes into the café with a package.

Possessive pronouns in Icelandic normally follow the noun they modify. Here nágranni (neighbor) comes first and minn (my) follows, both in masculine nominative singular. Preposing minn would be unnatural in modern usage.

What case is nágranni minn in, and why?

It’s in the nominative singular because it’s the subject of the sentence. In Icelandic, subjects always take the nominative case.

Why is kaffihúsið in the accusative case, and how does í affect that?

The preposition í is a two-way preposition. When it indicates movement into something (“to the café”), it governs the accusative. The noun kaffihús is neuter, so its accusative (and nominative) singular form with the definite article is kaffihúsið.

What does the -ið at the end of kaffihúsið do?

Icelandic doesn’t use a separate word for “the.” Instead, it attaches a definite‐article ending to the noun. For neuter singular nouns you add -ið, so kaffihús (a café) becomes kaffihúsið (the café).

Why is pakki written as pakka after með?

The preposition með (with) always takes the dative case. pakki (package) is a strong masculine noun whose dative singular form is pakka, so með pakka means “with a package.”

I notice pakka is the same for genitive, dative, and accusative. How do I know which case it is?

Context and prepositions tell you the case. Because með requires the dative, pakka here is dative. If another preposition governed accusative or genitive, you’d still see pakka, but the meaning would change accordingly.

Why is the verb koma written as kemur here?

kemur is the third person singular present tense of the irregular verb koma (to come). It means “he/she/it comes.”

What is the word order in this sentence? Does Icelandic always use Subject-Verb-Object?

Icelandic main clauses follow a Verb-Second (V2) rule: the finite verb comes in second position. In Nágranni minn kemur í kaffihúsið með pakka, Nágranni minn is first, kemur (the finite verb) is second, and the remaining elements follow. If you front another phrase (e.g. Með pakka), the verb still stays second: Með pakka kemur nágranni minn í kaffihúsið.

Could I say til kaffihússins instead of í kaffihúsið, and what would that imply?

Yes. til takes the genitive, so you’d say til kaffihússins (“to the café”). It’s grammatically correct, but í + accusative is more idiomatic when expressing entry into places like cafés.

How do I know the gender of nouns like kaffihús or nágranni?

Icelandic dictionaries list each noun’s gender: masculine (m.), feminine (f.), or neuter (n.). You can also often infer gender from patterns (e.g. many -i endings are masculine), and from the definite-article endings you see in usage (–inn for masculine, –ið for neuter, –in for feminine).