Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ísskápurinn er fullur af grænmeti og mjólk. - The refrigerator is full of vegetables and milk.

The ending -inn is the masculine singular nominative definite ending. So ísskápurinn literally means “fridge-the”, which is how Icelandic marks “the fridge.”

What exactly does ísskápurinn mean literally? Is it a compound word?

Yes, ísskápurinn is a compound word:

ís = ice
skápur = cupboard / cabinet

So ísskápur is literally “ice-cupboard”, the normal Icelandic word for fridge.
With the definite ending -inn, it becomes ísskápurinn = “the fridge.”

Why is it ísskápurinn er fullur and not something like ísskápurinn er fullt?

The adjective fullur must agree with the noun ísskápurinn in:

gender: masculine
number: singular
case: nominative

ísskápurinn is masculine singular nominative, so the adjective takes the masculine singular nominative form:

masculine: fullur
feminine: full
neuter: fullt

So you say:

Ísskápurinn er fullur. – The fridge is full.
Skápan er full. – The cupboard (fem.) is full.
Borðið er fullt. – The table (neut.) is full.

What does the phrase fullur af mean, and why do we need af here?

The common Icelandic expression for “full of something” is:

fullur af + [noun in dative case]

So:

fullur af grænmeti og mjólk = full of vegetables and milk

The preposition af usually translates as “of, from” and governs the dative case. In this fixed pattern fullur af X, it means “full of X”, very close to English.

What case are grænmeti and mjólk in, and why don’t they change form?

After af, the noun takes the dative case.

So in this sentence:

af grænmeti → of vegetables (dative)
af mjólk → of milk (dative)

However:

grænmeti (neuter) has the same form in nominative, accusative, and dative singular, so you don’t see any change.
mjólk (feminine) also looks the same in nominative, accusative, and dative singular in its standard form.

So they are in the dative, but it’s not visible in the spelling here.

Why does grænmeti look singular even though it means “vegetables” in English?

Grænmeti is a mass noun in Icelandic. It literally means something like “vegetable matter / produce” and is grammatically singular neuter.

grænmeti = vegetables / veg / produce (as a collective mass)
You don’t usually say grænmetin to mean “the vegetables” in normal speech; you just use grænmeti.

This is similar to English words like “fruit” or “meat”, which are grammatically singular but can have a collective meaning.

Why is there no article before grænmeti and mjólk? Why not “the vegetables and the milk”?

In Icelandic, mass nouns and uncountable substances (like milk, water, sugar, food in general) often appear without an article when you talk about them in a general or indefinite way.

So:

grænmeti og mjólk = vegetables and milk (general amount, not specific)
You would only use the definite forms (grænmetið, mjólkin) when you mean specific, known vegetables/milk.

In English, we might say “the fridge is full of vegetables and milk”, but in Icelandic the article often stays off in this kind of general content statement.

What does og mean, and is its usage exactly like English “and”?

og is the normal Icelandic word for “and”.

In this sentence:

grænmeti og mjólk = vegetables and milk

It is used very similarly to English “and”:

joining words: Jón og María – Jón and María
joining phrases: í sveitinni og í borginni – in the countryside and in the city

What is the function of er in this sentence? Is it the same as English “is”?

Yes. er is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb vera – to be.

Present tense of vera:

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

In Ísskápurinn er fullur…, er corresponds directly to “is”.

Can I change the word order, for example Ísskápurinn er af grænmeti og mjólk fullur?

That word order would sound unnatural or at least very marked in modern Icelandic.

The normal, neutral order is:

Subject – verb – complement
→ Ísskápurinn er fullur af grænmeti og mjólk.

You can occasionally move things around for emphasis in Icelandic, but fullur af X is a tight unit, and separating fullur and af grænmeti og mjólk like that is not idiomatic here. Stick to:

Ísskápurinn er fullur af grænmeti og mjólk.

How do you pronounce Ísskápurinn?

Approximate pronunciation (in IPA): [ˈisˌskauːpʏrɪn]

Key points:

Stress is on the first syllable: ÍS-ská-pu-rinn.
Í is a long [iː], like a long “ee”.
The double ss in ís-skápur is pronounced as a long /s/; you clearly hear the s and sk: ís + skápur.
á is pronounced like “ow” in now.
u in -púr- is a short [ʏ], kind of between English “u” in put and “i” in sit.
The final -inn has a short, light -in sound: [ɪn].

What gender is ísskápur, and how does that affect the rest of the sentence?

Ísskápur is a masculine noun.

That determines:

The form of the definite ending:
- masculine nominative singular definite: -inn → ísskápurinn
The form of the adjective:
- masculine nominative singular: fullur
  So we say Ísskápurinn er fullur…

If the noun had been feminine or neuter, both the ending and the adjective form would change accordingly.

Could the sentence mean that the fridge itself is made of vegetables and milk?

No. The structure X er fullur af Y in Icelandic means:

“X is full of Y (Y is inside X)”, not “X consists of Y”.

So Ísskápurinn er fullur af grænmeti og mjólk clearly means:

The fridge is full of vegetables and milk (the content),
not that the fridge itself is composed of those things.