Questions & Answers about Bak mitt er hlýtt undir teppinu.
In the sentence Bak mitt er hlýtt undir teppinu., why is the possessive mitt placed after bak instead of before, like in English my back?
In Icelandic, the normal position for possessive pronouns (my, your, his, etc.) is after the noun:
- bók mín – my book
- bíllinn minn – my car
- bak mitt – my back
Putting the possessive before the noun is also possible, but it tends to sound more emphatic or stylistically marked, a bit like stressing it in English:
- mitt bak – my back (as opposed to someone else’s, or with some emphasis)
So bak mitt is the neutral, everyday way to say my back in this kind of sentence.
Why is the form mitt used and not minn, mín, or mínum?
The form of the possessive pronoun has to agree with the gender, number, and case of the noun it modifies.
- bak is a neuter noun in Icelandic.
- Here it is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative singular.
The possessive “my” declines like this (singular forms):
- Masculine: minn (nom), mínn (acc), mínum (dat), míns (gen)
- Feminine: mín, mína, minni,