Á safninu er mikill fjöldi ferðamanna um sumarið.

In the museum there is a large number of tourists in the summer.

Breakdown of Á safninu er mikill fjöldi ferðamanna um sumarið.

• vera: to be
• á: in
• sumarið: the summer
• um: during
• ferðamaðurinn: the tourist
• safnið: the museum
• mikill: large
• fjöldinn: the number

Questions & Answers about Á safninu er mikill fjöldi ferðamanna um sumarið.

Why is it á safninu and not something like í safninu? What does á mean here?

Both á and í can translate as in / at / on in English, but they’re used differently in Icelandic.

• á safninu here means at the museum (as a location where something happens).
• í safninu would more strongly suggest inside the museum (physically inside the building).

With many public places and institutions (e.g. museums, offices, schools), Icelandic often uses á when English would say at:

• á safninu – at the museum
• á spítalanum – at the hospital
• á skrifstofunni – at the office

So á here gives the natural, idiomatic way to say at the museum as a location where there are many tourists.

What does the ending in safninu mean? How is this form built?

The base noun is:

• safn – museum (neuter, singular, indefinite)

In safninu, several things are happening at once:

1. Definite form: Icelandic usually adds the definite article as an ending, not as a separate word:

   • safn – a museum
   • safnið – the museum (nominative, definite)

2. Case: The preposition á can take either accusative or dative, depending on meaning.

   • With static location (“there is at the museum”), it takes dative.
   • The dative singular of safn (with the definite article) is safninu.

So:

• á
  • safnið (nom.) → must change to dative → á safninu
    Meaning: at the museum.

Why is the verb er singular? Shouldn’t it be plural because of all the tourists?

The verb is singular er (“is”) because the grammatical subject is fjöldi, not ferðamanna.

The phrase:

• mikill fjöldi ferðamanna
  literally: a great number of tourists

Here:

• fjöldi = number / multitude, masculine, singular
• ferðamanna = of tourists, genitive plural, dependent on fjöldi

In Icelandic, as in English with “a number of X is …” (more formal), the verb agrees with the head noun:

• fjöldinn er stór – the number is large
• mikill fjöldi ferðamanna er á safninu – a great number of tourists is at the museum

So er is singular because it agrees with fjöldi (singular), not with ferðamanna.

What does mikill fjöldi mean exactly, and how is it different from just saying margir ferðamenn?

• mikill fjöldi literally means a great amount / a large number (of something).
  • mikill = great, much, large (masc. nom. sg.)
  • fjöldi = number, multitude (masc. nom. sg.)

So:

• mikill fjöldi ferðamanna = a large number of tourists

If you say:

• margir ferðamenn = many tourists (literally “many tourists”)

Difference in nuance:

• mikill fjöldi ferðamanna sounds a bit more quantitative or formal, focusing on the size of the number.
• margir ferðamenn is a more straightforward “many tourists”, slightly more conversational.

Both are correct; the original just chooses the “large number” phrasing.

Why is mikill in that exact form? Why not miklir?

Adjectives in Icelandic must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.

Here the noun being described is fjöldi:

• fjöldi – masculine, singular, nominative

So mikill must match that:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

The correct masculine nominative singular strong form is:

• mikill

If the head noun were plural, you’d see miklir:

• miklir ferðamenn – many / great (number of) tourists (if miklir were directly describing ferðamenn)

But in this sentence mikill describes fjöldi, not ferðamenn, so mikill fjöldi is the correct combination.

What is going on with ferðamanna? What case and number is that?

ferðamanna is genitive plural of ferðamaður (“traveller, tourist”).

Breakdown:

• ferðamaður – a traveller / tourist (nom. sg.)
• ferðamenn – travellers / tourists (nom. pl.)
• ferðamanns – of a traveller (gen. sg.)
• ferðamanna – of travellers (gen. pl.)

In mikill fjöldi ferðamanna, the structure is:

• fjöldi
  • genitive plural = a number of (something)

So ferðamanna is in genitive plural because it depends on fjöldi:

• fjöldi ferðamanna – a number of tourists
  literally: number of tourists

How do we get from ferðamaður to ferðamanna? The changes look big.

The noun ferðamaður is irregular, like “man/men” in English.

Main forms:

• ferðamaður – traveller (nom. sg.)
• ferðamann – traveller (acc. sg.)
• ferðamanni – (to) traveller (dat. sg.)
• ferðamanns – of a traveller (gen. sg.)

Plural:

• ferðamenn – travellers (nom./acc. pl.)
• ferðamönnum – (to) travellers (dat. pl.)
• ferðamanna – of travellers (gen. pl.)

The pattern:

• The stem changes (-maður → -menn in plural)
• The genitive plural ending -a gives ferðamanna.

So the form ferðamanna is exactly what you expect as genitive plural of this irregular noun.

What does um sumarið mean literally, and why use um to say “in summer”?

Literally:

• um = about, around, over, during
• sumarið = the summer (accusative singular, definite)

In time expressions, um often means “during / in (the period of)”:

• um sumarið – in the summer / during the summer
• um helgina – over the weekend / during the weekend
• um jólin – at / over Christmas

So um sumarið is the usual, idiomatic way to say:

• in (the) summer / during summer (as a repeated, typical time of year).

Why is it sumarið and not just sumar? What does the -ið do?

The base form is:

• sumar – summer (neuter, singular, indefinite)

The form sumarið is:

• neuter
• singular
• accusative
• definite (“the summer”)

The definite article is attached as -ið in neuter singular:

• sumar – summer
• sumarið – the summer

Because the preposition um takes the accusative when it means “during”, you get:

• um
  • sumarið (acc. def.) → um sumarið – during the summer / in summer (as a general, recurring thing).

Why is the sentence order Á safninu er mikill fjöldi ferðamanna um sumarið instead of starting with the subject?

Icelandic word order is flexible, and it often front-loads information about time or place.

Base structure could be:

• Mikill fjöldi ferðamanna er á safninu um sumarið.
  (A large number of tourists is at the museum in summer.)

But Icelandic commonly moves a location or time phrase to the front:

• Á safninu er mikill fjöldi ferðamanna um sumarið.
  Focus on at the museum.

This gives:

• Á safninu – place (fronted for emphasis / context)
• er – verb
• mikill fjöldi ferðamanna – subject / main information
• um sumarið – time phrase (when)

It’s similar to English variations like:

• At the museum, there are many tourists in summer.

Could I also say Á safninu eru margir ferðamenn um sumarið? Is that correct, and what changes?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct, but the structure changes:

• Á safninu – at the museum
• eru – are (plural verb)
• margir ferðamenn – many tourists (subject, plural)
• um sumarið – in the summer

Differences:

1. Subject and agreement

   • Original: mikill fjöldi ferðamanna er
     
     • subject: fjöldi (singular) → er (singular)
   • Alternative: margir ferðamenn eru
     
     • subject: ferðamenn (plural) → eru (plural)

2. Nuance

   • mikill fjöldi ferðamanna – a large number of tourists (slightly more formal / quantitative)
   • margir ferðamenn – many tourists (more straightforward and direct)

Both mean essentially the same thing in everyday use; the original just packages it as “a large number of X”.