Questions & Answers about Tómaturinn er rauður.
- Tómaturinn = the tomato (noun tómatur
- definite suffix -inn)
- er = is (3rd person singular of the verb að vera “to be”)
- rauður = red (adjective, masculine singular nominative, strong form)
Icelandic uses a suffixed definite article. You make a noun definite by adding an ending:
- tómatur → tómaturinn = the tomato
For masculine nouns ending in -ur, the definite nominative singular is typically -urinn: tómatur + inn → tómaturinn.
When an adjective comes before a definite noun, the adjective takes the weak ending and the article still sits on the noun: rauði tómaturinn = the red tomato. (A separate article hinn exists, e.g., hinn rauði tómatur, but it’s formal/literary.)
Adjectives agree with the noun’s gender, number, and case. Tómaturinn is masculine, singular, nominative, so the predicate adjective appears as masculine singular nominative, strong: rauður.
In predicative position (after er “is”), adjectives normally use the strong declension.
No in standard usage. Rauði is the weak form, used attributively with a definite noun (e.g., rauði tómaturinn “the red tomato”). In predicative position after er, use the strong form: rauður.
So: Tómaturinn er rauður, but Rauði tómaturinn er góður (“The red tomato is good”).
- Masculine singular: rauður (as in the sentence)
- Feminine singular: rauð (e.g., Bókin er rauð “The book is red”)
- Neuter singular: rautt (e.g., Húsið er rautt “The house is red”)
- Masculine plural: rauðir (e.g., Tómatar eru rauðir “Tomatoes are red”)
- Feminine plural: rauðar
- Neuter plural: rauð
- “Tomatoes are red.” → Tómatar eru rauðir.
- “The tomatoes are red.” → Tómatarnir eru rauðir.
Icelandic has no indefinite article. You simply use the bare noun:
- “A tomato is red.” → Tómatur er rauður.
Using the definite form Tómaturinn usually points to a specific tomato, not a generic statement. For a generic claim, plural is common: Tómatar eru rauðir.
- tómaturinn is in the nominative case (it’s the subject).
- The predicate adjective rauður also appears in nominative and agrees with the subject in gender and number.
If tomato were an object, you’d see accusative: - “I’m eating the tomato.” → Ég borða tómatinn. (accusative singular definite)
Invert subject and verb:
- Er tómaturinn rauður? = “Is the tomato red?”
Answer with Já (yes) / Nei (no): - Já, tómaturinn er rauður. / Nei, tómaturinn er ekki rauður.
Place ekki (not) after the verb:
- Tómaturinn er ekki rauður. = “The tomato is not red.”
Yes, for emphasis or contrast you can front the predicate adjective:
- Rauður er tómaturinn. ≈ “Red is the tomato.” (emphatic/stylistic)
The neutral order is Tómaturinn er rauður.
- Tómaturinn: stress first syllable; ó is like a long “oh”; final -ur has a short, rounded vowel (like the u in English “put”) plus a trilled r.
- er: like “air” but short.
- rauður: au is a diphthong roughly like English “oi” in “boil” but with rounded lips; ð is the voiced “th” in “this”.
Very rough guide: TOH-ma-tur-in air ROY-thur (with a trilled r).
- ég er (I am)
- þú ert (you are, singular)
- hann/hún/það er (he/she/it is)
- við erum (we are)
- þið eruð (you are, plural)
- þeir/þær/þau eru (they are)
Here we use er because the subject is third person singular.
- Nouns are not capitalized in Icelandic (only sentence-initial words and proper names). Tómaturinn is capitalized here solely because it starts the sentence.
- Note the letters: ó (not plain o), ð (voiced “th”), and the diphthong au in rauður.