Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Sú kona er falleg.

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.

What grammatical case is kona in, and why?

Kona is in the nominative singular.

Reasons:

It is the subject of the sentence.
In Icelandic, the subject of a simple “X is Y” sentence normally appears in the nominative case.
The base nominative singular form of the noun kona (woman) is kona.

If you change the structure, the case changes. For example:

Ég sé konu. – I see a woman. (konu is accusative singular)

What gender, number, and definiteness does kona have here?

Kona here is:

Gender: feminine
Number: singular
Definiteness: indefinite (there is no definite ending, no -n)

So:

kona = a woman (indefinite)
konan = the woman (definite, nominative singular)

In sú kona, the demonstrative sú already carries the definiteness (that woman), so the noun itself stays without the definite -n. You don’t say sú konan in this structure.

Why is the adjective falleg in this exact form? Why not fallegur or fallega?

Falleg is agreeing with kona in gender, number, and case:

kona is feminine, singular, nominative.
fallegur (beautiful) has these basic forms in the nominative singular:
- masculine: fallegur
- feminine: falleg
- neuter: fallegt

So you get:

Sá maður er fallegur. – That man is beautiful. (masc.)
Sú kona er falleg. – That woman is beautiful. (fem.)
Það barn er fallegt. – That child is beautiful. (neut.)

The ending -a (as in fallega) appears in weak adjective forms, usually with definite nouns before the noun:

sú fallega kona – that beautiful woman
hin fallega kona – the beautiful woman
fallega konan – the beautiful woman

After er (the verb to be), adjectives normally appear in these strong forms, so we say konan er falleg, not konan er fallega.

Is falleg describing the woman in the same way as an English adjective after “to be”?

Yes. This is a classic predicate adjective, just like in English:

English: That woman is beautiful.
Icelandic: Sú kona er falleg.

In grammar terms:

Sú kona = subject
er = linking verb (to be)
falleg = predicate adjective (describing the subject)

What form of the verb is er, and does it change with the subject?

Er is the present tense of the verb að vera (to be), 3rd person singular.

The main present forms of að 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

So with sú kona (3rd person singular, feminine), the verb is er.

Could I say Þessi kona er falleg instead? What difference would that make?

Yes, Þessi kona er falleg is perfectly correct. The difference is in distance / context:

Sú kona er falleg. – That woman is beautiful.
- more distant (in space, time, or discourse)
- or “the one we talked about earlier”
Þessi kona er falleg. – This woman is beautiful.
- usually someone close by or being directly pointed out
- more “here and now”

In many contexts they both can translate to English that woman, but Icelanders feel a nuance between them.

Can sú stand alone without kona, like Sú er falleg?

Yes. If it is clear from context who you are talking about, sú can stand alone as a pronoun:

Sú er falleg. – That one (fem.) is beautiful.

Here:

sú refers to some feminine noun already understood (for example, a particular woman, dress, house, etc.),
falleg still agrees in gender, number, and case with the understood noun.

If I want to say “That beautiful woman is tall”, how would I say that?

You need an adjective before the noun with a demonstrative. That triggers the weak adjective ending:

Sú fallega kona er há. – That beautiful woman is tall.

Breakdown:

sú – that (feminine)
fallega – beautiful (weak fem. nom. sg., because of sú
- definiteness)
kona – woman (indefinite form, but the phrase as a whole is definite because of sú)
er – is
há – tall (fem. nom. sg. strong, predicate position)

Could I change the word order to Falleg er sú kona?

Yes, but that sounds poetic or emphatic, not neutral everyday speech.

Sú kona er falleg. – neutral word order.
Falleg er sú kona. – emphasizes falleg (Beautiful is that woman), like you might hear in poetry, song lyrics, or very expressive speech.

Normal conversation would use Sú kona er falleg.

How is sú, kona, and falleg pronounced?

Approximate pronunciation (IPA and rough English hints):

sú – /suː/
- like soo in English soon, long ú
kona – /ˈkʰɔːna/
- kʰ: strongly aspirated k, like the k in keep
- ó: long vowel between English aught and owe
- stress on the first syllable: KÓ-na
falleg – /ˈfatlɛɣ/ or /ˈfaʰlɛɣ/ (pronunciation can vary slightly)
- f: like English f
- a: like a in father (short)
- ll in this position is often realized with a kind of tl or t‑hl sound
- g at the end is a soft /ɣ/, a voiced velar fricative, not like a hard g

Stress in Icelandic almost always falls on the first syllable, so: SÚ KÓna ER FALleg (primary stress on sú and kó, secondary rhythm on fal).