Ég athuga samninginn vandlega áður en ég undirrita hann.

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Breakdown of Ég athuga samninginn vandlega áður en ég undirrita hann.

• áður en: before
• undirrita: to sign
• samningurinn: the contract

Questions & Answers about Ég athuga samninginn vandlega áður en ég undirrita hann.

Why is it samninginn and not samningur?

Because athuga takes a direct object, and that object goes in the accusative case.

• samningur = a contract / the contract in the nominative form
• samninginn = the contract in the accusative singular

So in this sentence:

• Ég athuga samninginn = I check the contract

The ending -inn is the suffixed definite article, so samninginn means the contract, not just a contract.

What exactly is the base form of samninginn?

The dictionary form is samningur.

Here are the important forms:

• samningur = nominative singular
• samning = accusative singular without the article
• samninginn = accusative singular with the

So samninginn is built from the noun stem plus the definite article. Icelandic usually attaches the to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English.

Why is hann used at the end?