Maturinn var frábær í gær.

The food was great yesterday.

Breakdown of Maturinn var frábær í gær.

• vera: to be
• maturinn: the food
• í gær: yesterday
• frábær: great

Questions & Answers about Maturinn var frábær í gær.

Why is there no separate word for the before Maturinn?

In Icelandic the definite article attaches to the noun as a suffix.
Matur gives you food in the indefinite sense. To say the food you add -inn to get Maturinn. There is no separate word like English the.

Why is the noun spelled Maturinn and not Matinn?

The dictionary form (lemma) of Maturinn is matur (a strong masculine noun). In the indefinite nominative singular it ends in -ur, so when you add the definite suffix -inn, you get:
• matur + inn = maturinn
You cannot drop the -ur before adding the article.

What is the gender, number, and case of Maturinn?

It is:
– Gender: masculine
– Number: singular
– Case: nominative
– Definiteness: definite (because of -inn)
As the subject of the verb var, it must be in the nominative case.

What is var, and why do we use it here?

Var is the past tense, 1st or 3rd person singular of the verb vera (to be). In English it corresponds to was.
Conjugation in past (singular):
• ég var → I was
• hann/hún var → he/she was

What does frábær mean, and why doesn’t it take an ending like -ur or -i?

Frábær is an adjective meaning fabulous or wonderful. In this sentence it stands after var, so it is in predicative position and uses the strong (full) form. Predicative adjectives do not take the weak endings even if the noun is definite. The strong forms are:
• Masculine sg: frábær
• Feminine sg: frábær
• Neuter sg: frábært
• Plural: frábærir

If I want to say the excellent food (attributive), how would I inflect frábær?

Attributive adjectives describing a definite noun use the weak form. For masculine singular:
frábæri maturinn
Here frábæri (weak nominative sg. masc.) agrees with maturinn (definite noun).

What kind of word is gær, and why do we say í gær instead of just gær?

Gær is an adverb of time meaning yesterday. The standard construction is í gær (literally “in yesterday”). You will rarely hear gær alone in formal or neutral speech.

Can I move í gær to the beginning of the sentence? If so, what happens to word order?

Yes. Icelandic follows the V2 (“verb-second”) rule: the finite verb stays in second position. You can front the time phrase:
Í gær var maturinn frábær.
(literally “Yesterday was the food fabulous.”)

How do you pronounce the letter æ in frábær and gær?

The letter æ is a diphthong pronounced like English eye ([ai]).
• frábær → [ˈfrauˌbair]
• í gær → [iːˈkair]
Stress always falls on the first syllable in Icelandic words.

Is there a difference between matur and máltíð in Icelandic?

Yes:
• matur = food or dish in a general sense
• máltíð = meal, a specific eating occasion
If you want to emphasize the meal itself you could say:
Máltíðin var frábær í gær.