Takkinn er stór og gulur.

to be

Breakdown of Takkinn er stór og gulur.

• stór: big
• og: and
• takkinn: the button

Questions & Answers about Takkinn er stór og gulur.

Why don’t we see a separate word for “the” in Takkinn er stór og gulur?

Icelandic doesn’t use a standalone definite article (“the”) like English. Instead, it tacks a suffix onto the noun. Here:

• takkur = “button” (indefinite)
• takkinn = takkur
  • -inn (definite suffix) = “the button”

What exactly does the -inn in takkinn do?

-inn is the masculine singular nominative definite article. Every gender/number/case combination in Icelandic has its own suffix:

• Masculine nom. sg.: -inn
• Feminine nom. sg.: -in (e.g. bók → bókin)
• Neuter nom. sg.: -ið (e.g. barn → barnið)
  …plus other endings for plural and cases.

Why do the adjectives stór and gulur end in “-r”?

They’re in the masculine nominative singular strong (indefinite) form to agree with takkinn as subject complements (predicate adjectives). In the strong declension you typically see:

• Masc. nom. sg. -r (or just the base form if the stem ends in r already)
• Fem. nom. sg. different ending (often no final r)
• Neut. nom. sg. -t

So stór and gulur each take their dictionary (strong) masculine endings.