Questions & Answers about Mánudagur er erfiður dagur.
Why is there no word like a in erfiður dagur? In English we say a difficult day.
Icelandic has no indefinite article (no word for a / an).
- erfiður dagur = a difficult day or difficult day
- dagur by itself can mean a day / one day depending on context.
There is a definite article (like the), but it is usually attached to the end of the noun:
- dagur = (a) day
- dagurinn = the day
- erfiði dagurinn = the difficult day
Why is dagur repeated? Could you just say Mánudagur er erfiður?
The sentence Mánudagur er erfiður dagur literally means Monday is a difficult day. The second dagur is a predicate noun (a noun that renames or classifies the subject).
- Mánudagur er erfiður. = Monday is difficult. (Just describing Monday.)
- Mánudagur er erfiður dagur. = Monday is a difficult day. (Classifying Monday as a type of day.)
Both are grammatically correct; the version with dagur is just a bit more explicit and natural if you want to emphasize that you are talking about Monday as a day (of the week).