Fyrsti dagurinn var góður.

to be

Breakdown of Fyrsti dagurinn var góður.

• góður: good
• dagurinn: the day
• fyrsti: first

Questions & Answers about Fyrsti dagurinn var góður.

What are the individual words here and what forms are they in?

The sentence Fyrsti dagurinn var góður is made of:

• fyrsti – the ordinal adjective first, here in masculine nominative singular weak form, agreeing with dagurinn.
• dagurinn – the day, masculine noun dagur in nominative singular definite form (stem dagur
  • suffixed article -inn).
• var – past tense of the verb vera (to be), 3rd person singular (was).
• góður – the adjective good, masculine nominative singular strong form, used as a predicative complement (after to be).

Why is it dagurinn and not just dagur for day?

Icelandic usually expresses the by attaching a suffixed article to the noun:

• Indefinite: dagur = a day / day
• Definite: dagurinn = the day

So dagurinn is dagur (nom. sg.) + the definite article -inn.
In this sentence, you are talking about a specific, known day (the first one), so Icelandic uses the definite form dagurinn.

What case is in, and why?