Ég er með lítinn farangur, því ég gisti bara eina nótt.

Að vera með is a very common everyday way to say to have in Icelandic, especially when talking about what you have with you in a situation.

So Ég er með lítinn farangur means something like:

• I have little luggage
• I’m carrying little luggage

You could also say Ég hef lítinn farangur, but ég er með is often more natural in spoken Icelandic.

Because lítinn has to agree with farangur.

• farangur is masculine
• it is singular
• here it is in the accusative
• so the adjective lítill changes to lítinn

So:

• lítill = masculine nominative singular
• lítinn = masculine accusative singular

This is normal adjective agreement in Icelandic.

In Icelandic, farangur is usually a collective singular noun, much like English luggage.

So lítinn farangur does not mean one single bag. It means a small amount of baggage/luggage in general.

If you wanted to talk about individual items, you would use words like:

• taska = bag
• töskur = bags
• ferðataska = suitcase

Here því means because or since.

So:

• Ég er með lítinn farangur, því ég gisti bara eina nótt. = I have little luggage, because I’m only staying one night.

This því is a conjunction. It is not the same as the pronoun form því meaning to that / by that / it in other contexts.

You may also see:

• því að
• af því að

All of these can introduce a reason.

Because the second part gives the reason for the first part.

In Icelandic writing, it is normal to separate this kind of explanatory clause with a comma:

• Ég er með lítinn farangur, því ég gisti bara eina nótt.

So the comma helps show that því ég gisti bara eina nótt explains why the speaker has little luggage.

Here it is understood as present tense, meaning:

• I stay
• more naturally in English, I’m staying

The verb is gista, meaning to stay overnight / spend the night.

A useful thing to know is that some Icelandic verb forms can look the same in present and past in the 1st person singular. So context matters. In this sentence, the meaning is clearly present or near-future:

• I’m only staying one night

Bara means only or just.

In this sentence, it limits the duration phrase eina nótt, so the meaning is:

• I’m staying only one night

Its position is very natural in Icelandic:

• ég gisti bara eina nótt

Word order with bara can shift slightly depending on emphasis, but this is the most straightforward and idiomatic placement here.

Because nótt is a feminine noun, and einn changes form for gender and case.

Here the phrase is in the accusative singular, so:

• ein = feminine nominative singular
• eina = feminine accusative singular

So eina nótt is correct.

Eitt would be wrong because eitt is the neuter form.

Because Icelandic often uses the accusative to express duration of time.

So gista eina nótt literally means:

• to stay one night
• or more naturally, to stay for one night

This is a very common pattern in Icelandic with time expressions.

Because nótt has the same form in the nominative singular and accusative singular.

So even though the phrase is accusative, the noun still appears as nótt.

The case is shown more clearly by eina, which changes form. That is why:

• ein nótt = nominative
• eina nótt = accusative

Even though nótt stays the same, the whole phrase is still grammatically different.