Questions & Answers about Ég nota heyrnartólin í strætó.
Why is it heyrnartólin and not just heyrnartól?
Heyrnartólin is the definite form, meaning the headphones.
- heyrnartól = headphones / a set of headphones
- heyrnartólin = the headphones
A learner may notice that English often just says I use headphones on the bus, without the. Icelandic can still use the definite form here, especially if the speaker means a specific pair of headphones they normally use.
So:
- Ég nota heyrnartól í strætó. = I use headphones on the bus. (more general)
- Ég nota heyrnartólin í strætó. = I use the headphones on the bus. / I use my headphones on the bus.
Why does heyrnartólin end in -in?
That -in is the suffixed definite article. In Icelandic, the is usually attached to the end of the noun rather than written as a separate word.
Here the noun is heyrnartól, and the definite form is heyrnartólin.
This is very common in Icelandic:
- hús = house
húsið = the house
- börn = children
- börnin = the children
So heyrnartólin literally works like , but in natural English that is just .