Breakdown of Þó að maturinn sé ódýr, er hann mjög góður.
Questions & Answers about Þó að maturinn sé ódýr, er hann mjög góður.
Sé is the subjunctive form of the verb vera (to be).
In Icelandic, conjunctions like þó að (although, even though) very often take the subjunctive mood in the clause they introduce, especially when expressing contrast, concession, or something that goes against expectation.
- Indicative (normal facts):
- maturinn er ódýr – the food is cheap (simple statement)
- Subjunctive after þó að (although):
- þó að maturinn sé ódýr – although the food is cheap
So sé appears because:
- The clause is introduced by þó að, and
- Icelandic grammar traditionally prefers the subjunctive in such concessive clauses.
You might hear þó að maturinn er ódýr in casual modern speech, but sé is the grammatically standard and more formal/neutral choice.
Yes, you can. Both forms are used:
- þó að maturinn sé ódýr
- þó maturinn sé ódýr
In practice:
- þó að is very common and slightly more explicit.
- þó without að is also correct and widely used.
- You will also see þótt (historically a contracted form of þó að) used in the same way:
- þótt maturinn sé ódýr, er hann mjög góður.
All of these can mean essentially the same thing. For a learner, it’s perfectly fine (and a bit safer) to use þó að + subjunctive until you get more comfortable with variations.
The comma separates the subordinate clause from the main clause:
- Subordinate (introduced by þó að):
Þó að maturinn sé ódýr, - Main clause:
er hann mjög góður.
Traditional Icelandic punctuation usually puts a comma between a subordinate clause and the following main clause, even when the subordinate clause comes first and is short.
Modern usage is becoming a bit looser (especially in informal writing), but in standard writing this comma is:
- Correct
- Very normal
- Roughly similar to English:
“Although the food is cheap, it is very good.”
Icelandic marks definiteness with a suffixed article:
- matur – food (in general, indefinite)
- maturinn – the food (a particular food, or the food we’ve been talking about)
In this sentence, the idea is something like:
- “Although the food (here, in this place / this meal) is cheap, it is very good.”
Using matur on its own would sound more generic or abstract, like talking about “food” as a general category. In context (for example, talking about a restaurant or cafeteria), maturinn is the natural choice because we are referring to specific food.
In Icelandic, pronouns must agree in gender and number with the noun they refer to.
- matur (food) is masculine singular.
- The corresponding personal pronoun is hann (he/it, masculine).
So:
- maturinn … hann – the food … it (masc.)
- Not það, because það is neuter and would normally refer to:
- Neuter nouns, or
- A whole situation or clause (like English “that/it” referring to an idea).
English doesn’t mark grammatical gender in the same way, so this feels odd at first. But in Icelandic:
- bókin (the book, feminine) → hún
- húsið (the house, neuter) → það
- maturinn (the food, masculine) → hann
Two things are going on: agreement and type of adjective use.
Agreement in gender, number, and case
- maturinn / hann is masculine, singular, nominative.
- So the adjectives that describe it must also be:
- masculine
- singular
- nominative
Therefore:
- ódýr (cheap) → masculine singular nominative form
- góður (good) → masculine singular nominative form
Forms like ódýrt or gott are neuter, which would be wrong here, because matur is masculine.
Predicative vs attributive adjectives
Here the adjectives are predicative (used with to be):
- maturinn er ódýr – the food is cheap
- hann er mjög góður – it is very good
Predicative adjectives take the strong form (no attached article-like ending). Therefore you do not say:
- x hann er góðurinn – incorrect in this context
Weak forms like góði or góði maturinn appear when the adjective comes before a definite noun (the good food = góði maturinn), not when used after the verb to be.
In Icelandic main clauses the finite verb is in second position (the V2 rule), counting major elements of the clause.
In your sentence the structure is:
- Þó að maturinn sé ódýr, – a subordinate clause is placed at the front.
- After that, the finite verb of the main clause must come next.
- So we get: … er hann mjög góður.
If you start the main clause directly (without fronting another element), you get the more familiar order:
- Hann er mjög góður. – He/it is very good.
But when the entire concessive clause is moved to the front, it “uses up” the first position, so the verb must come next:
- Þó að maturinn sé ódýr, er hann mjög góður.
This is a normal, grammatical word order in Icelandic.
Yes, that is possible and natural:
- Hann er mjög góður, þó að maturinn sé ódýr.
Both:
- Þó að maturinn sé ódýr, er hann mjög góður.
- Hann er mjög góður, þó að maturinn sé ódýr.
are correct. The difference is mainly emphasis and style:
- Starting with the þó að clause puts emphasis on the contrast right away.
- Starting with Hann er mjög góður states the positive fact first, and then adds the surprising condition.
There are two separate clauses, each with its own subject:
Subordinate clause: þó að maturinn sé ódýr
- Subject: maturinn
- Verb: sé
- Complement: ódýr
Main clause: er hann mjög góður
- Subject: hann (referring back to maturinn)
- Verb: er
- Complement: mjög góður
So:
- Within the subordinate clause, maturinn is the subject.
- Within the main clause, hann is the subject, but it refers to the same real-world thing as maturinn.
Mjög means “very” and is an adverb. It modifies adjectives and other adverbs and does not change form (it’s invariable).
In your sentence:
- mjög góður – very good
The normal placement is:
- hann er mjög góður – it is very good
(adverb mjög directly before the adjective góður)
You wouldn’t normally put mjög somewhere else in this short phrase. The good neutral pattern to remember is:
- [subject] + [form of vera “to be”] + mjög + [adjective]
e.g. Maturinn er mjög ódýr. – The food is very cheap.