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Verslunarmiðstöðin er stór og full af fólki á laugardögum.

Verslunarmiðstöðin er stór og full af fólki á laugardögum.
The shopping mall is big and full of people on Saturdays.

Breakdown of Verslunarmiðstöðin er stór og full af fólki á laugardögum.

vera
to be
stór
big
á
on
og
and
fullur
full
af
of
fólk
the people
laugardagur
the Saturday
verslunarmiðstöðin
the shopping mall
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Questions & Answers about Verslunarmiðstöðin er stór og full af fólki á laugardögum.

What does Verslunarmiðstöðin literally mean, and how is this long word built?

Verslunarmiðstöðin is a compound word with a definite-article ending:

  • verslun = shop, trade, commerce
  • verslunar- = genitive of verslun, used as a linking form in compounds
  • miðstöð = center, hub
  • verslunarmiðstöð = shopping center / mall
  • -in = the (definite article, feminine singular nominative)

So verslunarmiðstöðin literally means “the shopping center” / “the shopping mall.”

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

Icelandic usually attaches the definite article as an ending instead of using a separate word:

  • verslunarmiðstöð = a shopping center
  • verslunarmiðstöðin = the shopping center

The -in at the end is the feminine singular nominative definite article.
So the is there; it is just glued onto the noun.

What gender is verslunarmiðstöðin, and why does that matter?

Verslunarmiðstöð is feminine. In dictionaries it is marked as kvk. (kvenkyn = feminine).

This matters because:

  • Adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
  • Since verslunarmiðstöðin is feminine, singular, nominative, the adjectives describing it (stór, full) are also in the feminine singular nominative form.

So we say:

  • Verslunarmiðstöðin er stór (The mall is big)
    not
  • *Verslunarmiðstöðin er stórt (neuter) or *stórir (masculine plural), etc.
Why is the adjective stór used here and not something like stórt?

Stór means big / large. Its basic strong nominative forms are:

  • masculine: stór
  • feminine: stór
  • neuter: stórt

Because verslunarmiðstöðin is feminine singular nominative, the correct agreeing form of the adjective is stór, not stórt.

So:

  • Húsið er stórt. – The house is big. (húsið is neuter → stórt)
  • Verslunarmiðstöðin er stór. – The mall is big. (verslunarmiðstöðin is feminine → stór)
Why is it full af fólki, and not full af fólk or fullt af fólki?

Several things are happening here:

  1. The construction “fullur af + dative”

    • fullur af e-u = full of something
    • The preposition af here governs the dative case, so the following noun goes into dative.

  2. Fólk is a mass noun

    • fólk = people (as a collective / mass)
    • Its dative singular is fólki.
    • So af fólki literally = of people (in the dative singular).

  3. Adjective agreement

    • The adjective fullur in its basic form:
      • masculine: fullur
      • feminine: full
      • neuter: fullt
    • It is describing verslunarmiðstöðin (feminine), so we use full, not fullt.

So:

  • Verslunarmiðstöðin er full af fólki.
    • full (feminine, agreeing with the mall)
    • af fólki (fólki = dative after af)

Something like *full af fólk is wrong because af needs the dative form fólki, not nominative fólk.

Fullt af fólki is possible in other sentences, e.g.:

  • Það er fullt af fólki hér. – There are lots of people here.

Here fullt is neuter, agreeing with an impersonal það, not with verslunarmiðstöðin.

Why is fólki in the dative case?

The preposition af (meaning “of / from”) normally takes the dative case when it means “of, full of, made of”:

  • fullur af vatni – full of water
  • glas úr gleri – a glass made of glass (here úr also takes dative)

In this sentence:

  • fólk (people) → dative singular fólki
  • After af, you must use fólki, not fólk.

So af fólki is “of people” in the grammatically required dative.

What exactly does á laugardögum mean, and why does it use the plural?

Á laugardögum literally means “on Saturdays” (habitually, every Saturday).

Breakdown:

  • laugardagur = Saturday (singular, nominative)
  • laugardögum = Saturdays (plural, dative)
  • á + dative is used for time expressions meaning “on (a recurring day)”.

So:

  • á laugardögum = on Saturdays (in general, repeatedly)
  • á laugardaginn (accusative singular) would mean something like “on Saturday (this coming / specific one)” in many contexts.

Using the dative plural here signals a regular, repeated event: every Saturday, the mall is big and full of people.

Why is the form laugardögum used here, and what case/number is it?

Laugardögum is:

  • Case: dative
  • Number: plural
  • From the noun laugardagur (Saturday)

Rough paradigm (simplified):

  • nominative singular: laugardagur
  • accusative singular: laugardag
  • dative singular: laugardegi
  • nominative plural: laugardagar
  • dative plural: laugardögum

The phrase á laugardögum uses dative plural because:

  • á
    • dative is used for “on [day(s)]” when talking about habitual or regular time.
Could the word order be different, for example moving á laugardögum earlier in the sentence?

Yes, Icelandic word order is somewhat flexible, especially for adverbials like time expressions.

Your sentence:

  • Verslunarmiðstöðin er stór og full af fólki á laugardögum.

Other natural possibilities:

  • Verslunarmiðstöðin er á laugardögum stór og full af fólki.
  • Á laugardögum er verslunarmiðstöðin stór og full af fólki. (emphasizes the time frame a bit more)

What speakers tend to prefer:

  • Keep the whole predicate phrase together: stór og full af fólki.
  • Place the time adverbial either near the verb or at the start for emphasis.

Your original word order is perfectly natural and probably the most neutral.

Why is the verb er only used once, not repeated as er stór og er full af fólki?

In Icelandic (as in English), you normally don’t repeat the same verb when it links a single subject to multiple predicates.

  • Verslunarmiðstöðin er stór og full af fólki.
    • One subject: verslunarmiðstöðin
    • One verb: er
    • Two predicate adjectives/phrases: stór and full af fólki

Saying *er stór og er full af fólki is not wrong grammatically, but it sounds unnecessarily heavy or emphatic, and is not the normal style in a simple statement like this.

How would the sentence change if we made it plural, like “shopping centers are big and full of people on Saturdays”?

We need to pluralize the noun and have the adjectives agree:

  • verslunarmiðstöð → verslunarmiðstöðvar (shopping centers, nominative plural)
  • eru is the 3rd person plural of vera (to be)
  • Adjectives in nominative plural feminine:
    • stórar (big)
    • fullar (full)

So a plural version would be:

  • Verslunarmiðstöðvar eru stórar og fullar af fólki á laugardögum.
    = Shopping centers are big and full of people on Saturdays.
How do you roughly pronounce the tricky letters in verslunarmiðstöðin and laugardögum?

Some key sounds:

  • ö: like the vowel in German schön, or somewhere between English “fur” and “say” (rounded lips).
  • ð: a voiced “th” sound, like “this” or “they”, but often quite soft between vowels.
  • au: a diphthong; roughly like ö
    • y (something like “uhy”), not like English “ow”.
  • g between vowels (as in laugardögum) is often a soft, friction sound, not a hard g as in “go.”

You don’t need perfect phonetics at first, but knowing that:

  • ð ≈ th in this
  • ö is a rounded front vowel (not like English o)
  • au is its own special Icelandic diphthong

will already get you much closer to a natural pronunciation of this sentence.