Breakdown of Foreldrarnir eru gift hjón.
vera
to be
foreldri
the parent
giftur
married
hjón
the married couple
Questions & Answers about Foreldrarnir eru gift hjón.
Why doesn’t Icelandic use a word for a before gift hjón?
Icelandic has no indefinite article (no equivalent of English a/an).
- Hjón by itself can mean a married couple or (the) married couples, depending on context.
- If you want the married couple, you add the definite ending and say hjónin.
So gift hjón naturally corresponds to English a married couple, even though there’s no separate word for a.
What exactly does Foreldrarnir mean, and why does it end in -nir?
The base word is:
- foreldri = parent (singular)
- foreldrar = parents (plural, nominative, indefinite)
Icelandic marks definiteness with a suffix, not a separate word:
- foreldrar = parents
- foreldrarnir = the parents
The -nir at the end is the definite nominative plural ending for many masculine plural nouns. So Foreldrarnir literally means the parents (as the subject).
Why is it eru and not er?