Hluturinn er á borðinu.

to be

Breakdown of Hluturinn er á borðinu.

• borðið: the table
• á: on
• hluturinn: the thing

Questions & Answers about Hluturinn er á borðinu.

What does hluturinn literally mean, and what is its base form?

Hluturinn is made of:

• hlutur = a thing, an object (indefinite, singular, nominative)
• -inn = the masculine singular definite ending “the”

So hluturinn literally means “the thing / the object”.
Base dictionary form: hlutur (masculine noun).

Why is there no separate word for “the” in this sentence?

Icelandic normally does not use a separate word for “the”.
Instead, the definite article is added as an ending:

• masculine: -inn (as in hluturinn – “the thing”)
• neuter dative here: -inu (as in borðinu – “on the table”)

So hluturinn er á borðinu literally looks like:
thing-the is on table-the → “The thing is on the table.”

Why is hluturinn in this form and not something like hlutinn or hlutnum?

Because hluturinn is the subject of the verb er, it must be in the nominative case.

For hlutur (singular definite forms):

• Nominative: hluturinn – used for the subject (“the thing” does something)