Breakdown of Hugbúnaðurinn kostar meira en ég bjóst við.
ég
I
kosta
to cost
en
than
hugbúnaðurinn
the software
Questions & Answers about Hugbúnaðurinn kostar meira en ég bjóst við.
Why does hugbúnaðurinn end with -inn instead of having a separate article?
In Icelandic the definite article (the English “the”) is not a separate word but a suffix attached to the noun. hugbúnaður means “software” (indefinite) and hugbúnaðurinn means “the software.”
Why is meira en used here, and what English words does it correspond to?
meira is the comparative adverb “more” and en functions like the English “than” in comparisons. So kostar meira en literally means “costs more than.”
Why is the form meira used instead of meiri in this sentence?
When you compare things by saying “costs more,” you need the adverbial comparative, which in Icelandic is meira. Meiri is the comparative adjective used attributively before a masculine or feminine noun (e.g. meiri vinna “more work”), while meira is both the neuter adjective and the adverbial form.
Why isn’t there a verb-second inversion after en, as we see with the conjunction en meaning “but”?
Here en is the comparative particle “than,” not the coordinating conjunction “but.” It does not trigger the V2 (verb-second) rule. The clause en ég bjóst við remains in normal subject-verb-object (SVO) order.