Rigning er oft falleg í skóginum.

to be

Breakdown of Rigning er oft falleg í skóginum.

• falleg: beautiful
• í: in
• oft: often

Questions & Answers about Rigning er oft falleg í skóginum.

Why is there no word for the before rigning?

In Icelandic, when you talk about something in general, you usually do not use a definite article.

• Rigning er oft falleg = Rain is often beautiful (rain in general)
• If you said Rigningin er oft falleg, it would sound more like The rain is often beautiful (a bit more specific, e.g. the rain here, or some particular rain you know about).

So rigning without an article is the normal way to make a general statement like in the example sentence.

Why is the adjective falleg and not fallega?

Falleg is an adjective. It describes a noun, here rigning (rain).

• Rigning er falleg = Rain is beautiful
  – falleg agrees with rigning (feminine singular nominative).

Fallega would normally be an adverb, meaning something like beautifully, used to describe a verb:

• Hún syngur fallega = She sings beautifully.

In Rigning er oft falleg í skóginum, you are saying what rain is (a quality of the noun), not how something is done, so you need the adjective falleg, not the adverb fallega.

How do I know that rigning is feminine, and why does falleg look feminine?