Breakdown of Rennibrautin er blaut, svo pollagallinn hennar verður skítugur.
Questions & Answers about Rennibrautin er blaut, svo pollagallinn hennar verður skítugur.
Why is rennibrautin one word, and what does -in mean?
Icelandic often builds nouns as compounds, so rennibraut is a single word:
- renni- = related to renna, to slide / to glide
- braut = track, path, lane
So rennibraut means slide.
The ending -in is the suffixed definite article, so:
- rennibraut = a slide
- rennibrautin = the slide
That definite article is attached to the noun instead of being a separate word like English the.
Why is it blaut and not blautur?
Because adjectives in Icelandic agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.
Here, rennibrautin is:
- feminine
- singular
- nominative
So the adjective must match it:
- masculine: blautur
- feminine: blaut
- neuter: blautt
Since rennibrautin is feminine, blaut is the correct form.
Why is it er blaut but later verður skítugur?
These two verbs do slightly different jobs:
- er = is → describes a state
- verður = becomes / gets → describes a change into a state
So:
- Rennibrautin er blaut = The slide is wet
- pollagallinn hennar verður skítugur = her rainsuit gets/becomes dirty
English often uses get where Icelandic uses verða.
Does verður mean future here, like will be?
Not mainly in this sentence. Although verða can sometimes help express future meaning, here it is best understood as become / get.
So verður skítugur means:
- becomes dirty
- gets dirty
not simply will be dirty.
The idea is that the wet slide causes the rainsuit to change from clean to dirty.
What does svo mean here?
Here svo means so in the sense of therefore / as a result.
So the sentence structure is:
- The slide is wet, so her rainsuit gets dirty.
Be aware that svo can mean other things in other contexts, such as:
- then
- thus
- so / very
But in this sentence it is a result connector: so.
Why is it pollagallinn hennar and not hennar pollagalli?
In normal Icelandic, possessors like hennar often come after the noun.
A very common pattern is:
- noun + definite article + possessor
So:
- pollagallinn hennar = her rainsuit
- literally something like the rainsuit of hers
This is the usual natural way to say it.
Why does pollagallinn still have the definite article if hennar already means her?
Because Icelandic commonly uses the definite article together with a possessive.
So English says:
- her rainsuit
but Icelandic naturally says:
- pollagallinn hennar
- literally the rainsuit her
This is normal Icelandic grammar, not emphasis or redundancy.
You see the same pattern in many everyday phrases:
- bíllinn minn = my car
- húsið þeirra = their house
- bókin hennar = her book
What exactly is pollagalli?
Pollagalli is a very Icelandic everyday word, especially for children’s clothing.
It usually means a waterproof rainsuit, often the kind a child wears outside in wet weather. It is more specific than just coat or raincoat.
The word is also a compound:
- polla- relates to puddle
- galli = suit / overalls / outfit
So the image is basically puddle-gear.
Why is it skítugur?
Again, adjective agreement is the reason.
The subject here is pollagallinn, which is:
- masculine
- singular
- nominative
So the adjective must match:
- masculine: skítugur
- feminine: skítug
- neuter: skítugt
That is why the sentence has skítugur.
Is skítugur stronger than just dirty? It looks like it might be rude.
It comes from skítur (dirt, or more literally shit), but in everyday Icelandic skítugur is the normal word for dirty.
So in this sentence it just means:
- dirty
- muddy / grimy
It is not shockingly rude here. It is a very common ordinary adjective.
What case is hennar here?
Hennar is the genitive form of the third-person feminine pronoun, and it is used to show possession.
So:
- hún = she
- hana = her (object)
- henni = her (indirect object / dative)
- hennar = her / hers in a possessive sense
In this sentence, hennar means her as the owner of the rainsuit.
Why doesn’t the adjective change into an accusative form after verður?
Because the adjective is a predicate adjective, not a direct object.
In Icelandic, after verbs like:
- vera = to be
- verða = to become
the adjective usually agrees with the subject and stays in the nominative.
So:
- pollagallinn is nominative
- skítugur matches it in nominative
The same thing happens earlier with:
- rennibrautin er blaut
Could the second clause also be svo verður pollagallinn hennar skítugur?
Yes, but the meaning or feel can shift slightly depending on how svo is being used.
In your sentence, svo works like the conjunction so, so the clause stays:
- svo pollagallinn hennar verður skítugur
If svo is felt more like an adverb such as then, you may get verb-second word order:
- svo verður pollagallinn hennar skítugur
So both patterns can occur in Icelandic, but the original sentence is perfectly natural as written for so / therefore.
What are the dictionary forms of the main words in the sentence?
They are:
- rennibrautin → dictionary form rennibraut (slide)
- er → dictionary form vera (to be)
- blaut → dictionary form blautur (wet)
- svo → so
- pollagallinn → dictionary form pollagalli (rainsuit)
- hennar → pronoun form meaning her
- verður → dictionary form verða (to become / get)
- skítugur → dictionary form skítugur (dirty)
This is useful because Icelandic words often appear in forms that look quite different from the dictionary entry.
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