Skápurinn í eldhúsinu er stór.

to be

Breakdown of Skápurinn í eldhúsinu er stór.

• stór: big
• í: in
• skápurinn: the cabinet

Questions & Answers about Skápurinn í eldhúsinu er stór.

Why does Skápurinn end in -inn?

Icelandic doesn’t use a separate word for “the” as English does. Instead it attaches a definite-article suffix to the noun. Here skápur (cupboard) is a masculine noun, and adding -inn (definite, masculine, nominative, singular) gives skápurinn meaning “the cupboard.”

What case is Skápurinn in, and why?

Skápurinn is in the nominative case (singular). In Icelandic, the subject of a sentence always appears in the nominative. Since skápurinn is the subject (“the cupboard”), it takes the nominative ending.

Why is it í eldhúsinu and not just eldhús or eldhúsið?

1. í = “in,” a preposition that here shows location.
2. Static location with í requires the dative case.
3. eldhús (kitchen) is a neuter noun. Its definite nominative is eldhúsið but in the dative definite you get eldhús+inu = eldhúsinu.
   So í eldhúsinu literally means “in the kitchen.”

What cases can the preposition í govern, and how do I know which one to use?

• Dative (location): use when something inside, at, on – e.g. (“in the school”).