Fréttin er áhugaverð.

to be

Breakdown of Fréttin er áhugaverð.

• áhugaverður: interesting
• frétt: the news

Questions & Answers about Fréttin er áhugaverð.

What does er mean here, and what form of the verb is it?

Er is the Icelandic verb “to be” in the present tense, 3rd person singular.

• Infinitive: vera – to be
• 1st person sg: ég er – I am
• 2nd person sg: þú ert – you are
• 3rd person sg: hann / hún / það er – he / she / it is

So Fréttin er áhugaverð literally: “The news is interesting.”

Why is it fréttin and not just frétt? What does the -in ending mean?

In Icelandic there is no separate word for “the”. Instead, the definite article is attached to the noun as a suffix.

• frétt = a news item, a piece of news (indefinite)
• fréttin = the news item / the piece of news (definite)

Here, -in is the feminine singular nominative definite ending, so fréttin literally means “news-the” → “the news.”

What gender, case, and number is fréttin, and why?

Fréttin is:

• Gender: feminine
• Case: nominative