Frændinn kemur í kvöld.

The uncle is coming tonight.

Breakdown of Frændinn kemur í kvöld.

• koma: to come
• í kvöld: tonight
• frændinn: the uncle

Questions & Answers about Frændinn kemur í kvöld.

What exactly does frændinn mean? Is it “uncle” or “cousin”?

Frændinn means “the male relative”, but in modern everyday Icelandic it usually covers:

• uncle (especially on the father’s side, but can be either)
• male cousin (often first cousin, but can be more general)

Context normally tells you whether it’s an uncle or a cousin. For a woman, the word is frænka (“aunt / female cousin”).

So Frændinn kemur í kvöld can be understood as:

• “The uncle is coming this evening.” or
• “The (male) cousin is coming this evening.”

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Why is the “the” at the end of frændinn instead of a separate word?

Icelandic uses a suffixed definite article. Instead of saying a separate word like English “the”, Icelandic usually attaches it to the end of the noun:

• frændi = a (male) relative / uncle / cousin
• frændinn = the (male) relative / the uncle / the cousin

The ending -inn here is the masculine singular definite article in the nominative case.

So structurally:

• frændi (stem) + -inn (definite article) → frændinn

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What gender, number, and case is frændinn in this sentence?