Liturinn á húsinu er gulur.

to be

Breakdown of Liturinn á húsinu er gulur.

• húsið: the house
• á: on
• gulur: yellow

Questions & Answers about Liturinn á húsinu er gulur.

Why does liturinn end with -inn?

Icelandic marks the definite article as a suffix. For a masculine noun in the nominative singular, the definite article is -inn. So litur (“colour”) + -inn = liturinn (“the colour”).

What case and number is húsinu, and why is it that form?

húsinu is the dative singular definite form of hús (“house”). The preposition á meaning “on” (in a static sense) governs the dative case. You form the dative singular by adding -i to the stem (húsi), then attach -nu to make it definite: húsi → húsinu.

Why is the adjective gulur not gult or guli?

Adjectives in predicative position (i.e. after er) take the strong declension and agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe. Here the subject liturinn is masculine nominative singular, so the strong nominative masculine ending -ur gives gulur.

• gult would be neuter nominative singular.
• guli is the weak form used when an adjective is attributive to a definite noun (e.g. guli liturinn).

Could I instead say Húsið er gult? What’s the difference?