Breakdown of Hún er gestgjafi í kvöld, svo hún undirbýr borðið.
vera
to be
hún
she
borðið
the table
svo
so
í kvöld
tonight
undirbúa
to prepare
gestgjafinn
the host
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Questions & Answers about Hún er gestgjafi í kvöld, svo hún undirbýr borðið.
Why does the sentence start with Hún?
Hún is the 3rd-person singular feminine subject pronoun (she). Icelandic commonly uses an explicit subject pronoun in normal statements, just like English.
What is er and why is it used here?
er is the present tense, 3rd-person singular form of vera (to be). It links the subject (Hún) to a description/role (gestgjafi) in the same way English uses is.
Why is it gestgjafi with no word for “a/an”?
Icelandic has no separate indefinite article like a/an. Indefinite nouns are often just the noun by itself, so gestgjafi can mean a host depending on context.
Why does gestgjafi look “masculine” even though it refers to a woman?
gestgjafi is grammatically masculine (many role/job nouns are), but it can still refer to a woman. Icelandic often uses a grammatically masculine noun as a gender-neutral or default job/role title, especially in everyday speech.
What case is gestgjafi in, and why?
It’s in the nominative because after the verb vera (to be), Icelandic typically keeps the complement in the nominative: Hún er gestgjafi (literally, She is (a) host).
Why is it í kvöld and not some other form of kvöld?
í kvöld means tonight. When í is used for a point/period of time like this, Icelandic commonly uses the accusative. (You don’t see a different ending here because kvöld is neuter and often has the same form in nominative/accusative singular.)
What does svo mean here, and is it the same as English “so”?
Here svo functions like so/therefore, introducing a result: ..., svo hún undirbýr borðið. Icelandic svo can also mean then/so in other contexts, but here it’s clearly “so/therefore.”
Why is there a comma before svo?
Because the sentence contains two main clauses:
- Hún er gestgjafi í kvöld
- svo hún undirbýr borðið A comma is commonly used to separate such clauses, especially when the second clause is introduced by a linking word like svo.
Why is hún repeated in the second clause?
Because the second part (svo hún undirbýr borðið) is a full clause and Icelandic normally states the subject again. You can restructure the sentence (e.g., ..., svo undirbýr hún borðið), but repeating the subject is very normal and clear.
What verb is undirbýr, and how is it formed?
undirbýr is present tense, 3rd-person singular of undirbúa (to prepare). The subject is hún, so the verb takes the -r ending typical for many verbs in 3rd-person singular present.
Why is it borðið and not just borð?
borð means (a) table, while borðið means the table. Icelandic usually marks definiteness with a suffix attached to the noun (here -ið), rather than with a separate word like the.
What case is borðið in, and how can I tell?
It’s the direct object of undirbýr, so it’s accusative. For this noun (borð, neuter), the accusative and nominative singular look the same in the definite form (borðið), so you identify the case mainly from its role in the sentence (object of the verb).