Vefsíðan virkar ekki í dag.

not

Breakdown of Vefsíðan virkar ekki í dag.

• í dag: today
• virka: to work
• vefsíðan: the website

Questions & Answers about Vefsíðan virkar ekki í dag.

What does vefsíðan literally mean, and how is the word built?

Vefsíðan means the website.

It’s a compound + a definite ending:

• vef- = web (from vefur = web)
• síða = page
• vefsíða = web page / website
• -n = the attached definite article, so vefsíðan = the website (literally the web‑page).

In Icelandic, the definite article is usually added to the end of the noun as a suffix, instead of being a separate word like the in English.

Why is vefsíðan ending in -an? What gender and case is it?

Vefsíða is a feminine noun.

The basic (indefinite) form is:

• vefsíða – a website (nominative singular, indefinite)

The definite form in the nominative singular is:

• vefsíðan – the website

So in this sentence:

• vefsíðan is nominative (it’s the subject)
• it’s definite (that’s why it has -n)
• the -a
  • -n together give -an.

If you later replace it with a pronoun, you would use hún (she/it), because it’s grammatically feminine:

• Hún virkar ekki í dag. –