Sú kona er falleg.

to be

Breakdown of Sú kona er falleg.

• konan: the woman
• fallegur: beautiful
• sú: the one

Questions & Answers about Sú kona er falleg.

What does sú mean here, and how is it different from þessi or hún?

Sú is a feminine demonstrative meaning roughly that (woman), often referring to:

• someone already mentioned in context, or
• someone at some (literal or figurative) distance from the speaker.

Compare:

• sú kona = that woman (more distant / already known in the discourse)
• þessi kona = this woman (nearer to the speaker, more immediately present)
• hún = she (a personal pronoun, not used directly with a noun: you don’t say hún kona)

So:

• Sú kona er falleg. = That woman is beautiful / The woman (we’re talking about) is beautiful.
• Þessi kona er falleg. = This woman is beautiful.
• Hún er falleg. = She is beautiful. (referring to a woman already clear from context)

Why is it sú kona and not kona sú?

In Icelandic, determiners (like demonstratives and articles) normally come before the noun they modify.

• sú kona = that woman
• kona sú would be ungrammatical in normal modern Icelandic.

This is similar to English: you say that woman, not woman that, and this man, not man this.