Ég er aðeins þreyttur eftir vinnu.

I

Breakdown of Ég er aðeins þreyttur eftir vinnu.

• vera: to be
• vinnan: the work
• eftir: after

Questions & Answers about Ég er aðeins þreyttur eftir vinnu.

What does aðeins mean in this sentence?

Here aðeins most naturally means a little, slightly, or just. So the sense is I’m a little tired after work.

It often softens what you are saying. Without aðeins, Ég er þreyttur eftir vinnu sounds more direct: I’m tired after work.

Why is the adjective þreyttur ending in -ur?

Because Icelandic adjectives agree with the subject in gender, number, and case.

In this sentence:

• ég = I
• the subject is singular
• the adjective is in the nominative
• þreyttur is the masculine singular nominative form

So a male speaker would say Ég er aðeins þreyttur.

What would change if a woman said this?

The pronoun ég stays the same, but the adjective changes.

A female speaker would usually say:

Ég er aðeins þreytt eftir vinnu.

So the difference is:

• masculine: þreyttur
• feminine: þreytt

This is very common in Icelandic with adjectives used after vera.

What is er exactly?