Heilsa mín er góð í dag.

to be

Breakdown of Heilsa mín er góð í dag.

• góður: good
• minn: my
• í dag: today

Questions & Answers about Heilsa mín er góð í dag.

Why is it heilsa mín and not mín heilsa, like my health in English?

In Icelandic, possessive pronouns (my, your, his, etc.) most often come after the noun:

• heilsa mín = my health
• bíll minn = my car
• húsið mitt = my house

You can put the possessive before the noun (mín heilsa), but that usually sounds:

• more emphatic, or
• more literary/poetic.

So:

• Heilsa mín er góð í dag. = neutral, everyday word order.
• Mín heilsa er góð í dag. = something like MY health is good today (with stress on my), or a bit bookish.

For a learner, using noun + possessive (heilsa mín) is the safest default.

What case is heilsa in here, and why?

Heilsa is in the nominative singular.

In Heilsa mín er góð í dag, the word heilsa is the subject of the sentence (the thing we’re talking about), and subjects are normally in the nominative case in Icelandic.

• heilsa = nominative singular, feminine
• mín agrees with it (feminine nominative singular)
• góð also agrees with it (feminine nominative singular form of the adjective góður).

So the structure is:

– – –