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Stöðin er tóm snemma á morgnana.

Stöðin er tóm snemma á morgnana.
The station is empty early in the mornings.
FromLesson 12inHardcore Icelandic
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Breakdown of Stöðin er tóm snemma á morgnana.

vera
to be
á
in
snemma
early
morguninn
the morning
stöðin
the station
tóm
empty

Questions & Answers about Stöðin er tóm snemma á morgnana.

Why is stöðin spelled with -in at the end instead of standing alone as stöð?

In Icelandic the definite article is not a separate word but a suffix on the noun.

  • stöð = “station” (indefinite)
  • -in = feminine nominative singular definite ending
    So stöðin literally means “the station.”
What case is stöðin in, and how do I recognize it?
stöðin is in the nominative case because it’s the subject of the sentence (it’s doing the “being empty”). In Icelandic, the subject always takes the nominative.
Why is the adjective tóm and not tómur (masculine) or tómt (neuter)?

After a linking verb like er (“is”), adjectives appear in their strong (indefinite) forms and must agree with the subject in gender, number, and case.

  • tómur = dictionary (masculine)
  • tóm = strong feminine nominative indefinite
  • tómt = strong neuter nominative indefinite
    Since stöðin is feminine singular nominative, the correct form is tóm.
What part of speech is snemma, and why is it placed before “á morgnana”?
snemma is an adverb meaning “early.” In Icelandic, adverbs of time typically precede the prepositional phrase they modify. Hence snemma á morgnana = “early in the mornings.”
Why do we say á morgnana in the plural, and why use á instead of, say, um?
  • Plural: It indicates a repeated event (“on mornings” = “every morning”).
  • Preposition á: Commonly used with time-of-day expressions in the plural.
    Grammatically, á here takes the dative plural of morgunn, yielding morgnana. Thus á morgnana = “in the mornings.”
How would I express “early in the morning” if I meant a single morning, not every morning?

Use the dative singular of morgunn, which is morgni, together with the preposition að:
 snemma að morgni = “early in the morning” (one specific or general morning).

Can I move the time phrase snemma á morgnana elsewhere in the sentence?

Yes. Icelandic word order is relatively flexible. You could say:
 “Snemma á morgnana er stöðin tóm.”
 “Stöðin snemma á morgnana er tóm.”
All are correct, though the original Stöðin er tóm snemma á morgnana is the most neutral, typical ordering.

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