Árangurinn er mikill.

The success is great.

Breakdown of Árangurinn er mikill.

• vera: to be
• mikill: great
• árangurinn: the result

Questions & Answers about Árangurinn er mikill.

What does árangurinn literally mean, and what is the function of the ending -inn?

The base noun is árangur, which means success, (good) result, or achievement.

The ending -inn is the definite article for masculine singular nouns in Icelandic, equivalent to “the” in English. Icelandic usually attaches the definite article to the end of the noun instead of putting a separate word in front.

So:

• árangur = success / a success (indefinite)
• árangurinn = the success / the result (definite)

Can I say Árangur er mikill without the -inn? What is the difference?

You can say Árangur er mikill, but it sounds more like a general, abstract statement, such as “Success is great (in general)” or “Success is considerable.” This is not something people say very often in everyday speech.

Árangurinn er mikill is the natural way to talk about a specific success/result that you have just been talking about or that is clear from context. For example, after an exam, a project, or a training plan:

• Við náðum prófinu. Árangurinn er mikill.
  We passed the exam. The success is great / The result is very good.

What are the gender, number, and case of árangurinn in this sentence?

In Árangurinn er mikill, the noun árangurinn is:

• Gender: masculine
• Number: singular
• Case: nominative

It is the subject of the sentence (“the success”), so it stands in the nominative singular masculine, and the adjective mikill has to agree with that.

Why is the adjective mikill in that specific form? How does it agree with árangurinn?

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

Here:

• árangurinn = masculine, singular, nominative
• So the adjective must also be masculine, singular, nominative.

The basic dictionary form of the adjective is:

• mikill – masculine nominative singular (strong declension)

That is exactly what we need here, so the sentence is:

• Árangurinn er mikill.
  The success/result is great/considerable.

I’ve seen forms like mikill, mikil, mikið, mikla, miklu, mikli. How do these relate to this sentence?

They are all inflected forms of the same adjective mikill (“big, great, much”). Which form you use depends on gender, number, case, and whether the adjective is strong or weak.

Very simplified overview of the strong nominative singular forms:

• Masculine: mikill – e.g. Árangurinn er mikill.
• Feminine: mikil – e.g. Framförin er mikil. (The progress is great.)
• Neuter: mikið – e.g. Verkið er mikið. (The task is large.)

Other forms like mikla, miklu, mikli occur in different cases (accusative, dative, genitive) or in the weak declension (mainly when the adjective stands before a definite noun, like mikli árangurinn).

In Árangurinn er mikill, we need masculine nominative singular, strong declension → mikill.

Why isn’t it Árangurinn er mikli? Doesn’t a definite noun usually make the adjective “definite” too?

Good observation. There is an important distinction in Icelandic:

• Attributive adjective: comes before the noun.
• Predicative adjective: comes after a verb like vera (“to be”), describing the subject.

1. Attributive + definite noun → weak adjective:

   • mikli árangurinn = the great success (as a noun phrase)

2. Predicative after “to be” → always strong adjective, even if the noun is definite:

   • Árangurinn er mikill. = The success is great.

So the rule is:

• Hesturinn er stór. (The horse is big.) – strong form
• stóri hesturinn (the big horse) – weak form

By the same pattern, Árangurinn er mikill, not mikli.

How would I put this sentence in the past tense, or make it plural?

1. Past tense
   Change er (is) to var (was). Agreement of the adjective stays the same (masc. sg. nom.):

• Árangurinn var mikill.
  The success/result was great.

2. Plural
   In practice, árangur is most often used as a mass/uncountable noun (“success” in general), so a plural is not very common. You more often rephrase, e.g.:

• Niðurstöðurnar voru mjög góðar. – The results were very good.

Grammatically, árangur does have a plural (árangrar), so you could theoretically say:

• Árangrarnir voru miklir. – The successes were considerable.

…but this sounds rather unusual in everyday Icelandic; it’s mostly a theoretical or very specific usage.

Is the word order fixed? Can I say Mikill er árangurinn instead?

The neutral, everyday word order is:

• Árangurinn er mikill.

However, Icelandic allows fronting an adjective for emphasis, especially in written or more dramatic/poetic style:

• Mikill er árangurinn.

This puts stronger focus on mikill (“great, considerable”), a bit like saying in English:

• “Great is the success.”

Grammatically it’s fine; it just sounds more formal, emphatic, or stylistic.

How do you roughly pronounce Árangurinn er mikill?

Very rough guide for an English speaker (not exact IPA):

• Árangurinn – roughly: OW-rahn-gu-rin

  • Á like ow in cow.
  • Stress is on the first syllable: ÁR-angurinn.
  • The final -urinn is like a short -ur-inn with a lightly rolled r.

• er – like English “air”, but shorter and clearer.

• mikill – roughly: MI-kitl

  • The i is like the vowel in “bit”, often a bit tenser/clearer.
  • The k before i is somewhat “fronted” (not exactly like English k).
  • The ll is not like English ll; it’s closer to a t-l cluster with a breathy sound, something like -tl.

Putting it together slowly: OW-rahn-gu-rin air MI-kitl (with all syllables short and clear, and stress on ÁR and MI).

What nuance does mikill have here? Is it “big”, “great”, or “a lot of”?

Mikill is quite flexible and its translation depends on context. Core ideas:

• Large in amount/degree – much, a lot of
• Great, considerable, significant

With árangur (success/result), mikill usually means something like:

• great success
• considerable / significant success
• a lot of success

So Árangurinn er mikill could be rendered as:

• The success is great.
• The result is considerable / very good.

Are there natural alternative ways to express the same idea in Icelandic?

Yes, several. A few common ones:

• Árangurinn er góður.
  The result is good.

• Árangurinn er mjög góður.
  The result is very good.

• Árangurinn er frábær.
  The success is fantastic / excellent.

• Við náðum mjög góðum árangri.
  We achieved very good results / We had great success.

All of these describe a positive outcome; mikill focuses more on the extent/degree of the success, while góður, frábær emphasize its quality.