Borðstofan er björt á morgnana.

to be

Breakdown of Borðstofan er björt á morgnana.

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

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.