Borðstofan er björt á morgnana.

to be

Breakdown of Borðstofan er björt á morgnana.

• á: in
• borðstofan: the dining room
• björt: bright
• morgunninn: the morning

Questions & Answers about Borðstofan er björt á morgnana.

What does borðstofan mean, and why does it have the ending -an?

borðstofan means the dining room. The base noun is borðstofa (a dining room), which is feminine. Icelandic marks definiteness by adding a suffix: the nominative feminine singular takes -n, so borðstofa → borðstofan (“the dining room”).

What is the word er doing in this sentence?

er is the third-person singular present form of the verb vera (to be). It functions just like English “is.”

What does björt mean, and why is it not björtur?

björt means bright (well lit). The masculine nominative form is bjartur, but adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number and case. Since borðstofan is feminine singular nominative, the matching adjective form is björt (with a zero ending in that slot).

Why does björt come after er instead of before borðstofan?

Here björt is a predicative adjective (it describes the subject’s state via the verb “to be”). Predicative adjectives follow the verb. If you wanted an attributive adjective (“a bright dining room”), you would say björt borðstofa, inflecting björt the same way.

What does á morgnana mean, and why is á used here?

á morgnana literally “on the mornings,” but idiomatically in the mornings (repeated/habitual). Icelandic uses á + (definite) plural of a time noun to express habitual time periods of day.

Why is morgnana in the plural definite form instead of singular or indefinite?

When you talk about something happening regularly in the mornings, you refer collectively to all mornings, so you use the definite plural. The base word is morgunn (morning), and its definite accusative plural is morgnana (“the mornings”).

Could I say á morgnunum instead of á morgnana? What’s the difference?

In everyday standard Icelandic, á morgnana (the acc. pl. definite) is the idiomatic choice for simple routines. á morgnunum (dat. pl.) sometimes appears colloquially to mean roughly the same “during the mornings,” but the preferred form in writing and speech is á morgnana.

How would I pronounce borðstofan er björt á morgnana correctly?

• ð in borðstofan and morgnana is like the “th” in English this (voiced).
• st in borðstofan is pronounced [st], not [sk] or [ʃ].
• bj in björt is pronounced [bj], similar to beauty.
• ö in björt sounds like the vowel in English bird (without r-coloring).
• Stress falls on the first syllable of each word:
  – BORÐ-sto-fan er BJÖRT á MORG-na-na.