Questions & Answers about Morgunn er góður.
Icelandic handles articles differently from English.
- There is no separate word for “a/an” in Icelandic. So you simply say morgunn for “a morning” or “morning” in a general sense.
- The word for “the” is normally attached to the end of the noun as a suffix.
For example:
- morgunn = (a) morning / morning (indefinite, general)
- morguninn = the morning (definite, specific)
So:
- Morgunn er góður.
→ literally: Morning is good (or A morning is good / It is a good morning, depending on context)
If you specifically wanted “The morning is good.”, you would usually say:
- Morguninn er góður.
The noun’s basic form in the dictionary is morgunn (with -nn), but it changes in different cases. In your sentence, morgunn is in the nominative singular (subject form), which happens to end in -nn.
Common forms:
Nominative sg. (subject):
morgunn – used when it’s the subject of the sentence
e.g. Morgunn er góður. – The morning is good.Accusative / Dative sg. (object, after many prepositions):
morgun – one n
e.g. í morgun – this morning
e.g. Ég elska morgun. – I love morning (a bit odd but grammatically fine)Definite nominative sg.:
morguninn – the morning as subject
e.g. Morguninn er kaldur. – The morning is cold.
So morgunn vs morgun is a case difference, not two different words.
In Morgunn er góður, the word morgunn is:
- Gender: masculine
- Number: singular
- Case: nominative
- Definiteness: indefinite (no attached -inn)
Reason:
- It is the subject of the sentence, so it must be in the nominative case.
- Morgunn is a masculine noun in Icelandic by dictionary classification.
- The sentence is talking about one morning, so singular is used.
- No definite suffix is attached, so it’s indefinite: morgunn, not morguninn.
Icelandic adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in:
- gender
- number
- case
The base adjective is góður = good. In the nominative singular:
- masculine: góður
- feminine: góð
- neuter: gott
In Morgunn er góður:
- morgunn is masculine
- singular
- nominative (subject)
So the adjective must also be masculine singular nominative → góður.
If the noun were different, the adjective would change:
Kaffi er gott. – Coffee is good.
(coffee = neuter → gott)Mjólk er góð. – Milk is good.
(milk = feminine → góð)
You cannot normally drop the verb er in Icelandic. You need it just like English needs “is”.
- er is the 3rd person singular present of að vera – to be.
- The structure of the sentence is:
- Morgunn (subject)
- er (verb “is”)
- góður (predicative adjective)
So:
- Morgunn er góður. = Morning is good / The morning is good.
Saying Morgunn góður without er would sound incorrect in normal Icelandic, except perhaps in very telegraphic speech, headlines, or playful/poetic usage, which learners should generally avoid copying.
Normally no. Morgunn er góður sounds more like a description:
- The morning is good.
- It’s a good morning.
As a greeting, Icelandic almost always uses “good day” rather than “good morning”:
Most common greetings:
- Góðan daginn! – Good day! (very common, polite)
- Góðan dag! – also Good day!
Less common / more literal “good morning” greetings:
- Góðan morgun! – Good morning!
(understood, but much less frequent than Góðan daginn!)
So if you want to say “Good morning!” to someone, you should normally say:
- Góðan daginn!
To make the morning definite (the morning), attach the article:
- Morguninn er góður.
= The morning is good. (specific morning)
To say “This morning is good”, use þessi (this):
- Þessi morgunn er góður.
= This morning is good.
In everyday speech you might also hear ways of expressing the same idea more naturally:
- Það er góður morgunn. – It’s a good morning.
- Morguninn í dag er góður. – The morning today is good.
You need the plural of morgunn and the plural of er:
- eru = are (3rd person plural of að vera)
Plural of morgunn (nominative):
- morgnar = mornings (indefinite)
- morgnarnir = the mornings (definite)
Adjective góður in masculine nominative plural is góðir.
So:
Morgnar eru góðir.
= Mornings are good.Morgnarnir eru góðir.
= The mornings are good.
You can say Góður er morgunn, but:
- Morgunn er góður is the normal, neutral word order.
- Góður er morgunn sounds marked, more poetic or emphatic, like:
- Good, that’s what the morning is.
- Good is the morning.
In everyday speech, you should stick to:
- Morgunn er góður.
Word order in Icelandic is generally Subject – Verb – [rest], like English, especially in simple statements.
Approximate pronunciation (IPA):
- Morgunn → [ˈmɔr̥.kʏn] or [ˈmɔr.ɡʏn] (the r may devoice g)
- er → [ɛr]
- góður → [ˈkouːðʏr̥] (or similar; exact realization varies slightly)
Some tips for an English speaker:
- Stress: Always on the first syllable: MOR-gunn, GÓ-ður.
- o in morgunn: like British English “lot”, slightly rounded.
- r: rolled or tapped r, not the English approximant.
- -unn in morgunn: short u (like “put”), then nn; the double n slightly lengthens or strengthens the n.
- ó in góður: a long vowel, roughly like English “go”, but purer, without a strong off-glide.
- ð in góður: this is the voiced “th” sound, as in “this”.
- Final r in góður can be partly devoiced; don’t worry too much about that as a beginner—just aim for a clear r.
All of those English sentences are possible translations, depending on context.
Icelandic doesn’t always map 1‑to‑1 to English articles and dummy subjects:
- Literally, Morgunn er góður is “Morning is good” (no article, generic or indefinite).
- In context, it can easily be understood as:
- “The morning is good.” (if both speakers know which morning is meant)
- “It is a good morning.” (natural English way to say it)
So when translating to natural English, you often choose:
- “It’s a good morning.”
- or “The morning is good.”
The Icelandic sentence itself doesn’t force one specific English choice; English grammar and style decide which translation sounds best.