Stíflan í eldhúsinu er verri í dag, svo við hringjum í pípulagningamann.

to be

Breakdown of Stíflan í eldhúsinu er verri í dag, svo við hringjum í pípulagningamann.

• við: we
• í: in
• svo: so

Questions & Answers about Stíflan í eldhúsinu er verri í dag, svo við hringjum í pípulagningamann.

Why is it stíflan and not just stífla?

Stífla means blockage / clog. The ending -an is the suffixed definite article, so stíflan means the blockage.

This is very common in Icelandic: instead of a separate word for the, Icelandic often adds the article to the end of the noun.

• stífla = a blockage
• stíflan = the blockage

Why is it í eldhúsinu?

Because í can take different cases depending on meaning:

• í + dative = location, in
• í + accusative = movement into, into

Here the blockage is already located in the kitchen, so Icelandic uses the dative:

• eldhúsi = kitchen, dative singular
• eldhúsinu = the kitchen, dative singular with the definite article

So í eldhúsinu means in the kitchen, not into the kitchen.

Why does eldhúsinu end in -inu?

That ending shows two things at once:

• -i / -u type ending here reflects the dative singular
• -nu is part of the suffixed definite article

So eldhúsinu is the form for in the kitchen.

The base noun is:

• eldhús = kitchen

Then Icelandic changes the ending depending on case and definiteness.