Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Á kvöldin er maturinn stundum dýrari en hádegismaturinn, en hann er ekki alltaf betri. - In the evenings the food is sometimes more expensive than the lunch, but it is not always better.

kvöld = evening
kvöldin here is dative plural: the evenings (as a general time period)
á kvöldin = in the evenings / at night (in general)

If you said á kvöldið, that would sound more like “this / that particular evening” (specific time), not a general statement.

um kvöldið can also mean in the evening, often a bit more like “in the evenings / at night” as well; there is overlap. In this sentence, á kvöldin is the more typical expression for a general, repeated situation.

What is going on with maturinn and hádegismaturinn having the ending -inn?

Icelandic usually marks definiteness (the word the) with a suffix, not a separate word:

matur = food / a meal
maturinn = the food / the meal
hádegismatur = lunch (literally midday-food)
hádegismaturinn = the lunch

So -inn is the definite article for masculine nouns in the nominative singular. English uses the separate word the, but Icelandic mostly uses endings like -inn, -an, -ið depending on gender and case.

How is hádegismaturinn formed, and why is it not written as two words?

Hádegismaturinn is a compound noun:

hádegi = midday, noon
matur = food, meal
→ hádegismatur = midday-meal, i.e. lunch
→ hádegismaturinn = the lunch

When Icelandic makes compounds, the first word is often put in a linking (usually genitive) form, so hádegi becomes hádegis-. That’s why there is an s in the middle: hádegi + s + matur.

It’s written as one word because compounds are normally written together in Icelandic.

Why is the word order Á kvöldin er maturinn… instead of Á kvöldin maturinn er…?

Icelandic has a verb-second (V2) word order in main clauses, similar to German:

Some element comes first (subject, time phrase, object, etc.)
The finite verb (here er) must come second.
The rest of the sentence follows.

In this sentence:

Á kvöldin (time phrase) – first position
er – verb, must be second
maturinn stundum dýrari… – the rest

So Á kvöldin er maturinn… is correct; Á kvöldin maturinn er… breaks the V2 rule and sounds wrong.

What does stundum mean exactly, and where can it go in the sentence?

stundum means sometimes.

Here it appears as:
Á kvöldin er maturinn stundum dýrari…
→ In the evenings, the food is sometimes more expensive…

Typical placements for stundum are:

After the verb: Maturinn er stundum dýrari.
Between subject and verb (less neutral, more emphasis): Maturinn stundum er dýrari. (sounds marked / poetic)
After the subject, before adjective/other info, as in the original.

In everyday neutral speech/writing, Maturinn er stundum dýrari and Maturinn stundum er dýrari don’t mean different things, but the first is more standard. The version in the sentence is also natural and quite common.

How do dýrari and betri work? Are they just “more expensive” and “better”?

Yes. They are comparative adjectives:

dýr = expensive
- comparative: dýrari = more expensive
góður = good
- comparative: betri = better (this one is irregular)

So:

maturinn er dýrari = the food is more expensive
hann er betri = it is better

You form comparatives mainly with -ari, but some, like góður → betri, are irregular and must be memorized.

The word en appears twice: dýrari en hádegismaturinn, en hann er ekki alltaf betri. Are these both the same word?

Yes, it’s the same conjunction en, but used in two related ways:

Comparison (“than”)
- dýrari en hádegismaturinn
- more expensive than the lunch
Contrast (“but”)
- …, en hann er ekki alltaf betri.
- …but it is not always better.

So English uses two words (than, but), but Icelandic uses en for both comparison and contrast; the meaning is clear from the context and sentence structure.

What does hann refer to here, and why is it hann and not something else?

Hann is the 3rd person singular masculine pronoun: he / it.

In this sentence, hann refers back to maturinn:

matur is a masculine noun.
Its definite form maturinn is masculine singular.
The matching pronoun is hann in the nominative case.

So en hann er ekki alltaf betri means “but it (the food) is not always better”. Even though English uses it for food, Icelandic uses hann because of the grammatical gender.

Why is it ekki alltaf and not alltaf ekki? What’s the difference?

ekki alltaf betri = not always better
- Sometimes it is better, sometimes not.
alltaf ekki betri would suggest always not better / never better, which is much closer to never and sounds unnatural; you’d normally just say aldrei betri (never better).

So:

hann er ekki alltaf betri = it is not always better
hann er aldrei betri = it is never better

The position of ekki is important for nuance: in ekki alltaf, the negation applies to always, giving not always.

Why do we say hádegismaturinn rather than just hádegismatur here?

Using hádegismaturinn (with the definite ending) highlights that we’re comparing specific, typical meals:

maturinn = the food / the meal (in the evening, at dinner time)
hádegismaturinn = the lunch (the lunchtime meal)

So the contrast is:

In the evenings, the food is sometimes more expensive than the lunch…

If we remove definiteness:

matur vs hádegismatur – sounds more like talking about those things in a very general, abstract way (food vs lunch as concepts). In this context, we’re talking about eating out (for example), so the definite forms feel natural.