Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég elda súpu í stórum potti á eldavélinni.

Súpa is the nominative form (dictionary form) of the noun súpa “soup”.
In this sentence, súpu is the direct object of the verb elda “to cook”, so it must be in the accusative case.

Nominative (subject): súpa – Súpan er heit. “The soup is hot.”
Accusative (direct object): súpu – Ég elda súpu. “I cook soup.”

So:

Ég – nominative (subject)
elda – verb
súpu – accusative (object)

That’s why you don’t use súpa here.

Why is it í stórum potti and not í stóran pott?

Two things are happening here: case from the preposition and agreement of the adjective.

Preposition + case
The preposition í (“in”) can take either:
- dative for location (“in” somewhere, no movement), or
- accusative for movement into (“into”).
In this sentence, the soup is already in the pot; it’s a location, not motion. So í takes the dative case:
- pottur (nom.) → potti (dat. sg.)
Adjective agreement
The adjective stór (“big”) must agree with potti in gender, number, and case:
- pottur is masculine singular dative
- Masculine singular dative of stór is stórum

So you get í stórum potti = “in a big pot” (static location, dative).

If you talked about moving into the pot (strange example, but grammatically):

Hann hellir súpunni í stóran pott. – “He pours the soup into a big pot.”
Here í takes accusative (movement), so pott (acc.) and stóran (acc. masc. sg.) are used.

Why does potti end in -i? What is the base form of this word?

The base (dictionary) form is pottur – “pot”.

Icelandic nouns change their endings for case:

Nominative sg. (subject): pottur
Accusative sg. (object): pott
Dative sg.: potti
Genitive sg.: potts

Because of í (with location), the noun must be in the dative, so you get potti.

So the phrase:

í potti = “in a pot” (dative after í for location)
í pott (acc.) would only appear with motion: “into a pot”.

Why is it á eldavélinni and not just á eldavél?

Eldavél is the basic noun “stove”. In á eldavélinni, two things are added:

Definiteness (“the stove”)
Icelandic usually adds the definite article as an ending, not a separate word:
- eldavél – “a stove”
- eldavélin – “the stove” (nominative sg.)
- eldavélinni – “the stove” in dative sg.
Case from the preposition á
The preposition á (“on”, “onto”, “at”) behaves like í:
- dative for location (“on the stove”)
- accusative for movement onto (“onto the stove”)

Here we describe where the cooking is happening (static location), so á takes the dative:

Feminine noun eldavél in dative definite → eldavélinni

So:

á eldavél (indefinite, not specifying which stove) = “on a stove”
á eldavélinni (definite) = “on the stove”

What exactly does á mean here, and how is it different from í?

In this sentence:

í stórum potti = “in a big pot”
á eldavélinni = “on the stove”

Í usually corresponds to “in”.
Á usually corresponds to “on” or “at”.

Both can take either dative (location) or accusative (movement), but they differ in spatial meaning:

í: you are inside something → í potti “in a pot”
á: you are on the surface of or at something → á eldavélinni “on the stove” / “at the stove”

So á is used because the pot is on top of the stove, not inside it.

Why is it elda and not eldar with ég?

Icelandic present-tense verb endings change with the subject.

For the verb elda (“to cook”):

ég elda – I cook
þú eldar – you (sg.) cook
hann / hún / það eldar – he / she / it cooks
við eldum – we cook
þið eldið – you (pl.) cook
þeir / þær / þau elda – they cook

So with ég (I), the correct form is elda (no -r ending).
Eldar is used with þú or third person singular, not with ég.

Can the word order change, or must it be Ég elda súpu í stórum potti á eldavélinni?

The basic, neutral order is Subject – Verb – Object – other information, which is what you see:

Ég (subject)
elda (verb)
súpu (object)
í stórum potti á eldavélinni (prepositional phrases)

Icelandic, however, is quite flexible with where you place the extra information (like prepositional phrases) to change emphasis, as long as the finite verb stays in second position in main clauses (the “V2 rule”).

Some possible variants:

Í stórum potti á eldavélinni elda ég súpu.
Emphasis on the location: In a big pot on the stove, I cook soup.
Á eldavélinni í stórum potti elda ég súpu.
Slightly different emphasis, but still acceptable.

You generally don’t move elda out of second position in a normal main clause:

✅ Í stórum potti elda ég súpu.
❌ Í stórum potti ég elda súpu. (verb not in second position → wrong in standard Icelandic)

When do í and á use the accusative instead of the dative?

Both í and á follow a common pattern:

Dative → location / no movement
Accusative → movement / change of location

Examples with í (“in/into”):

Dative (location):
- Súpan er í stórum potti. – “The soup is in a big pot.”
Accusative (movement):
- Hann hellir súpunni í stóran pott. – “He pours the soup into a big pot.”

Examples with á (“on/onto, at/to”):

Dative (location):
- Potturinn er á eldavélinni. – “The pot is on the stove.”
Accusative (movement):
- Hann setur pottinn á eldavélina. – “He puts the pot onto the stove.”

In Ég elda súpu í stórum potti á eldavélinni, both prepositions describe where the action takes place (static location), so they use the dative.

Could you leave out Ég and just say Elda súpu í stórum potti á eldavélinni?

In normal, neutral Icelandic, you do not normally drop the subject pronoun.
So:

Ég elda súpu í stórum potti á eldavélinni. – correct, natural.
Elda súpu í stórum potti á eldavélinni. – sounds like an imperative (“Cook soup in a big pot on the stove”) or like a fragment, not a full normal statement.

Unlike some languages (e.g. Spanish), Icelandic is not a “pro-drop” language for subject pronouns in the present tense. You usually keep ég, þú, hann, hún, etc., visible.

What is the difference between Ég elda súpu and Ég er að elda súpu?

Both are common, but they focus slightly differently on the action in time:

Ég elda súpu.
- Simple present. Can mean:
  - A habitual action: “I (often / usually) cook soup.”
  - Or, in context, something happening now.
Ég er að elda súpu.
- Literally “I am at cooking soup.”
- Very close to English present continuous: “I am cooking soup (right now).”
- Stronger emphasis on the action being ongoing at the moment.

In your full sentence:

Ég elda súpu í stórum potti á eldavélinni.
Neutral statement about what you do (habitually or now, depending on context).
Ég er að elda súpu í stórum potti á eldavélinni.
Makes it clearer that you’re in the middle of cooking right now.