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Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Morgunninn er kaldur. - The morning is cold.

Hardcore Icelandic
/Lesson 9
/Morgunninn er kaldur.

Morgunninn er kaldur.

Word

Morgunninn er kaldur.

Meaning

The morning is cold.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Icelandic

Lesson

Breakdown of Morgunninn er kaldur.

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Questions & Answers about Morgunninn er kaldur.

What does morgunninn mean, and what is the -inn ending?

Morgunninn means the morning.

It breaks down like this:

morgunn = morning
-inn = the suffixed definite article, roughly the

So Icelandic often puts the onto the end of the noun instead of using a separate word the way English does.

In this sentence, morgunninn is the nominative singular definite form: the morning.

Why are there so many n's in morgunninn?

Because the base noun already ends in -nn:

morgunn = morning

Then the definite ending is added:

-inn = the

So the result is morgunninn.

This looks a bit heavy at first, but it is normal in Icelandic spelling. Also, different cases can change the shape of the word. For example, the accusative form is morguninn, with one less n in the middle.

Why isn’t there a separate word for the?

Because Icelandic usually uses a suffixed definite article.

So instead of:

English: the morning

you often get:

Icelandic: morgunn-inn

This is one of the first big differences English speakers notice. Icelandic can also use a separate article-like word (hinn / hin / hið) in some contexts, but the normal everyday way is the ending attached to the noun.

What does er mean?

Er means is.

It is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb vera (to be).

A few useful present-tense forms are:

ég er = I am
þú ert = you are
hann / hún / það er = he / she / it is
við erum = we are
þið eruð = you are
þeir / þær / þau eru = they are

Since morgunninn is singular, Icelandic uses er.

Why is it kaldur and not kalt or köld?

Because Icelandic adjectives must agree with the noun they describe.

They change for:

gender
number
case

Here, morgunn is:

masculine
singular
nominative

So the adjective must also be masculine singular nominative:

kaldur = cold

Compare:

kaldur = masculine
köld = feminine
kalt = neuter

So Morgunninn er kaldur uses the correct masculine form.

Why isn’t it kaldi if the noun is definite?

That is a very common question.

The short answer is: because kaldur here is a predicate adjective, not an adjective directly in front of the noun.

In:

Morgunninn er kaldur. = The morning is cold.

the adjective comes after er and describes the subject through the verb to be. In this position, Icelandic uses the regular agreeing form kaldur.

But when the adjective is directly attached to a definite noun, you often get the weak form instead:

kaldi morgunninn = the cold morning

So:

Morgunninn er kaldur = full sentence, The morning is cold
kaldi morgunninn = noun phrase, the cold morning

What case is morgunninn, and does kaldur match it?

Morgunninn is in the nominative case, because it is the subject of the sentence.

After vera (to be), the predicate adjective also appears in the nominative, so:

morgunninn = nominative masculine singular
kaldur = nominative masculine singular

So yes, they match.

Why is morgunn masculine? Does that matter?

Yes, it matters grammatically.

In Icelandic, every noun has a grammatical gender:

masculine
feminine
neuter

Morgunn happens to be masculine. That does not mean a morning is somehow male in any real-world sense. It is just a grammatical category.

But it affects other words in the sentence, especially:

the form of the article
adjective endings
sometimes pronouns

That is why you get kaldur and not kalt.

Is the word order the same as in English?

In this sentence, yes.

The basic order is:

Morgunninn = subject
er = verb
kaldur = complement/predicate adjective

So it lines up nicely with English:

The morning is cold.

However, Icelandic word order is more flexible than English in many situations, and main clauses often follow a verb-second pattern. So the neutral order here is simple and English-like, but not every Icelandic sentence will match English word order so closely.

How would I say the cold morning instead of The morning is cold?

You would use a noun phrase instead of a full sentence:

kaldi morgunninn = the cold morning

Compare:

Morgunninn er kaldur. = The morning is cold.
kaldi morgunninn = the cold morning

And for an indefinite phrase:

kaldur morgunn = a cold morning

So the difference is:

predicate adjective: er kaldur
attributive adjective: kaldi morgunninn / kaldur morgunn

Why is Morgunninn capitalized?

Only because it is the first word of the sentence.

Unlike German, Icelandic does not capitalize ordinary nouns just because they are nouns.

So:

Morgunninn er kaldur. = capitalized because it starts the sentence
in the middle of a sentence, it would normally be morgunninn

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