Tjörnin er ekki djúp, en hafið er mjög djúpt.

to be

Breakdown of Tjörnin er ekki djúp, en hafið er mjög djúpt.

• ekki: not
• mjög: very
• en: but

Questions & Answers about Tjörnin er ekki djúp, en hafið er mjög djúpt.

Why is it djúp in the first part and djúpt in the second part?

Both words come from the same adjective, djúpur (deep), but Icelandic adjectives change their endings to agree with the noun’s gender, number, and case.

• Tjörnin is feminine singular nominative → the adjective takes the feminine nominative singular form: djúp.
• hafið is neuter singular nominative → the adjective takes the neuter nominative singular form: djúpt.

So:

• Tjörnin er djúp = The pond is deep. (feminine)
• Hafið er djúpt = The ocean is deep. (neuter)

What is the difference between Tjörnin and tjörn?

Tjörn is the basic noun meaning pond.
Tjörnin is tjörn + the, i.e. the pond.

Icelandic usually adds the definite article as a suffix:

• tjörn = a pond
• tjörn + in → Tjörnin = the pond

Because it starts with tj, the t in the ending appears as -in, not -tin. The -in here is the feminine singular definite ending in the nominative case.

What does hafið mean, and how is it formed?