Laugardagurinn er frídagur.

to be

Breakdown of Laugardagurinn er frídagur.

• laugardagurinn: the Saturday
• frídagurinn: the day off

Questions & Answers about Laugardagurinn er frídagur.

Why does the word Laugardagurinn end in -inn?

In Icelandic there is no separate word for “the.” Definiteness is marked by a suffix on the noun.

• The base (indefinite) form is Laugardagur (“Saturday”).
• Adding -inn turns it into the definite form Laugardagurinn (“the Saturday”).
  In general statements about days of the week, Icelandic typically uses the definite: e.g. Miðvikudagurinn er vinnudagur (“Wednesday is a workday”).

There’s no “a” before frídagur. How do you say “a holiday” in Icelandic?

Icelandic has no separate indefinite article (“a”/“an”). Masculine nouns in the nominative singular simply appear in their base form to mean “a …”.

• frídagur = “a holiday” or “a day off”
  So in the sentence Laugardagurinn er frídagur, frídagur is the indefinite predicate noun meaning “(is) a holiday.”

What grammatical case are Laugardagurinn and frídagur in?

Both nouns are in the nominative case:

• Laugardagurinn is the subject.
• frídagur is the predicate nominative (the complement after the verb er).
  In copular sentences (using er = “is/are”), both subject and predicate take the nominative.

Why is frídagur written as one word? What does it consist of?

frídagur is a compound noun formed from:

• frí (“free”)
• dagur (“day”)
  In Icelandic all compounds are written together as one word, so frídagur literally means “free-day,” i.e. “day off.”

How do you pronounce Laugardagurinn er frídagur?

A rough phonetic guide:

• Laugardagurinn: LOU-gar-TAHR-kur-rin (OU like in “ouch,” roll the r’s)
• er: air (similar to English “air,” but shorter)
• frídagur: FREE-dah-kur (FREE like English, -dagur with a soft “dah”)
  Stress in Icelandic words almost always falls on the first syllable.

Can I drop the -inn on Laugardagurinn to make it indefinite? What difference does that make?

Yes. The indefinite nominative singular is Laugardagur.

• Laugardagur er frídagur would literally be “A Saturday is a holiday.”
• Using Laugardagurinn (“the Saturday”) is more natural when making a general statement about Saturdays as a category.

How do I change the sentence to plural, e.g. “Saturdays are holidays”?

Use the nominative plural forms:

• Laugardagar = “Saturdays” (indefinite plural of Laugardagur)
• frídagar = “holidays” (indefinite plural of frídagur)
  Sentence: Laugardagar eru frídagar.

What is the typical word order in this sentence compared to English?

It follows the Subject-Verb-Object/Complement pattern (SVO):

1. Subject: Laugardagurinn
2. Verb: er
3. Complement: frídagur
   Icelandic is a V2 language, so the verb must occupy the second position in main clauses.