Göngutúrinn í skóginum er skemmtilegri en í borginni.

The walk in the forest is more fun than in the city.

Breakdown of Göngutúrinn í skóginum er skemmtilegri en í borginni.

• vera: to be
• í: in
• borgin: the city
• en: than
• göngutúrinn: the walk
• skógur: the forest
• skemmtilegri: more fun

Questions & Answers about Göngutúrinn í skóginum er skemmtilegri en í borginni.

Why does Göngutúrinn have the ending -inn? Where is the word for the?

Icelandic usually does not use a separate word for the.
Instead, the definite article is attached to the end of the noun as a suffix.

• göngutúr = a walk
• göngutúrinn = the walk

So -inn here is “the” for a masculine singular noun in the nominative case.

You could in some contexts also see:

• göngutúr (indefinite: a walk)
• göngutúrinn (definite: the walk)
• göngutúrnum (to/at/on the walk – dative)
• göngutúrsins (of the walk – genitive)

In this sentence, Göngutúrinn is the subject, so it is in the nominative, and the definite ending is -inn.

What case are í skóginum and í borginni, and why do they have those endings?

Both í skóginum and í borginni are in the dative singular.

The preposition í (“in”) can take dative or accusative, depending on meaning:

• Dative: location, “in/at” (no movement into)

  • í skóginum = in the forest
  • í borginni = in the city

• Accusative: movement into, “into”

  • í skóginn = into the forest
  • í borgina = into the city

Because the sentence is about where the walk takes place (a static location, “in the forest / in the city”), í takes the dative, resulting in:

• skógur (a forest) → dative definite: skóginum
• borg (a city) → dative definite: borginni

Why is it skóginum but borginni? Why are the endings different?

The reason is that skógur and borg have different genders and belong to different declension patterns.

• skógur = forest

  • Gender: masculine
  • Dative singular definite: skóginum

• borg = city

  • Gender: feminine
  • Dative singular definite: borginni

So:

• Masculine dative definite often ends with -inum (here: skógi + num → skóginum)
• Feminine dative definite often ends with -inni (here: borg + inni → borginni)

Both mean “in the …”, but the exact ending depends on the gender and declension of the noun.

What form is skemmtilegri, and why isn’t it skemmtilegur?

Skemmtilegur is the positive form of the adjective: “fun, entertaining, enjoyable”.

• Positive: skemmtilegur = fun
• Comparative: skemmtilegri = more fun
• Superlative: skemmtilegastur = most fun

In the sentence, we have a comparison (“more fun than”), so Icelandic uses the comparative form:

• Göngutúrinn í skóginum er skemmtilegur.
  = The walk in the forest is fun.

• Göngutúrinn í skóginum er skemmtilegri en í borginni.
  = The walk in the forest is more fun than (the walk) in the city.

So skemmtilegri is the comparative of skemmtilegur, used because we are comparing two things.

Does skemmtilegri agree with Göngutúrinn in gender and case?

Yes.

In Icelandic, adjectives agree with the noun they describe in:

• Gender
• Number
• Case

Here:

• Göngutúrinn = masculine, singular, nominative (subject)
• The adjective (in comparative) describing it must also be masculine, singular, nominative.

That form of the comparative is skemmtilegri, so:

• Göngutúrinn … er skemmtilegri …

If the subject were neuter, for instance, the comparative form would change:

• Kvöldið í skóginum er skemmtilegra en í borginni.
  = The evening in the forest is more fun than in the city.
  (kvöldið is neuter; hence skemmtilegra.)

Could I say meira skemmtilegur instead of skemmtilegri?

No, not in normal Icelandic.

For adjectives that have a regular comparative form (like skemmtilegur → skemmtilegri), you do not use meira (“more”) in front of them.

Correct:

• skemmtilegur → skemmtilegri → skemmtilegastur

Incorrect:

• × meira skemmtilegur

Meira is used:

• With verbs:
  
  • Hann les meira. = He reads more.
• With adverbs that don’t have a special comparative form:
  • Hún talar meira. = She talks more.

But for ordinary adjectives like skemmtilegur, you use the built-in comparative: skemmtilegri.

What does en mean here, and how do comparisons with en work?

In this context, en means than.

Comparative structure:

• [subject] + [verb] + [comparative adjective] + en + [thing compared to]

In this sentence:

• Göngutúrinn í skóginum (subject)
• er (is)
• skemmtilegri (more fun)
• en (than)
• í borginni (in the city)

So the pattern is:

X er skemmtilegri en Y.
X is more fun than Y.

You can replace the pieces:

• Þetta hús er fallegra en hitt.
  = This house is more beautiful than the other.
• Leikurinn var lengri en ég bjóst við.
  = The game was longer than I expected.

Why doesn’t the sentence repeat göngutúrinn after en? Could you say it?

In Icelandic, just like in English, you often omit repeated words in comparisons if they are obvious from context.

Full, explicit version:

• Göngutúrinn í skóginum er skemmtilegri en göngutúrinn í borginni.

Natural version (with ellipsis, what you have):

• Göngutúrinn í skóginum er skemmtilegri en í borginni.

The second göngutúrinn is understood: > … more fun than (the walk) in the city.

Both are grammatically correct. The shorter version is simply more natural and less repetitive.

Could the word order be Göngutúrinn í skóginum er skemmtilegri en í borginni vs Göngutúrinn er skemmtilegri í skóginum en í borginni? Is that allowed?

Yes, both are possible, and both are used.

1. Göngutúrinn í skóginum er skemmtilegri en í borginni.
   – Neutral, straightforward: “The walk in the forest is more fun than in the city.”

2. Göngutúrinn er skemmtilegri í skóginum en í borginni.
   – Slightly different emphasis: “The walk is more fun in the forest than in the city.”

The second version more clearly contrasts the two locations as circumstances of the same walk:

• The same walk, but in the forest vs in the city.

Word order in Icelandic is relatively flexible, especially with prepositional phrases like í skóginum and í borginni, but the verb in a main clause normally stays in second position (here: er).

Why is there no separate word for the before skóginum and borginni?

Again, Icelandic usually uses a suffix instead of a separate word for the.

• skógur = a forest
• skóginum = in the forest (dative definite)
• borg = a city
• borginni = in the city (dative definite)

So í skóginum literally is “in forest-the”, and í borginni is “in city-the”.

There is no indefinite article (“a/an”) in Icelandic, so:

• í skógi = in a forest
• í skóginum = in the forest

What case is Göngutúrinn in, and why?

Göngutúrinn is in the nominative singular.

Reasons:

• It is the subject of the sentence.
• In Icelandic, the subject of a normal, active sentence is typically in the nominative.

Structure:

• Göngutúrinn í skóginum (subject, nominative)
• er (verb “is”)
• skemmtilegri (predicate adjective describing the subject)
• en í borginni (comparison phrase)

Because Göngutúrinn is nominative masculine singular, the comparative adjective skemmtilegri is also nominative masculine singular, to agree with it.

What is the difference between göngutúr and að ganga?

• göngutúr is a noun:

  • göngutúr = a walk, a walking trip
  • Göngutúrinn = the walk

• að ganga is a verb:

  • að ganga = to walk

Examples:

• Við fórum í göngutúr.
  = We went for a walk.
• Við gengum í skóginum.
  = We walked in the forest.

So in your sentence, Göngutúrinn í skóginum… refers to the event or activity of going for a walk.

How do you pronounce the special vowels in Göngutúrinn and skóginum?

Key special vowels here:

• ö (in Göngu-)

  • Similar to the u in English “burn” (British), or the vowel in French “peur”.
  • A mid front rounded vowel.

• ó (in skóginum)

  • Pronounced like a long “o” roughly similar to English “go”, but often a bit clearer and tenser.
  • It is written with an accent to mark length and quality.

• ú (in -túr-)

  • Like a long “oo” in English “food”.
  • Again, the accent shows a specific long vowel quality, not stress (stress almost always falls on the first syllable in Icelandic).

Stress:

• Göngutúrinn is stressed on the first syllable: GÖNGU-túrinn.
• skóginum is stressed on SKÓ-ginum.

The accents mark vowel quality (and often length), but stress placement is mostly predictable: first syllable of the word.