Teppið er of þunnt, svo mér er kalt.

The base noun is teppi, a neuter noun meaning blanket, rug, or carpet, depending on context.

The ending -ið is the definite article attached to the noun, so:

• teppi = a blanket / a rug
• teppið = the blanket / the rug

Icelandic often puts the at the end of the word instead of using a separate word like English does.

Because the adjective has to match teppið.

The adjective þunnur means thin, but it changes form depending on gender:

• þunnur = masculine
• þunn = feminine
• þunnt = neuter

Since teppið is neuter singular, the correct form is þunnt.

This is true even though the adjective comes after er. It is still describing teppið.

Here of means too or overly.

So:

• of þunnt = too thin

This is a very common false friend for English speakers, because it is not the same as English of.

A useful comparison:

• mjög þunnt = very thin
• of þunnt = too thin

So of usually implies that something is excessive or a problem.

Because Icelandic often expresses physical sensations like cold, heat, pain, and similar states with a dative pronoun.

So you get this pattern:

• mér er kalt = I am cold
• honum er heitt = he is hot
• okkur er illt = we are in pain / it hurts us

Here mér is the dative form of ég.

Word for word, mér er kalt is something like to me, it is cold, but the natural English meaning is simply I am cold.

In this kind of expression, the adjective normally stays in the neuter singular form:

• mér er kalt
• mér er heitt
• mér er illt

So kalt does not change according to whether the speaker is male or female.

This is different from sentences where an adjective directly describes a person.

This is an important difference.

• mér er kalt = I feel cold / I am cold
• ég er kaldur (male) / ég er köld (female) = I am cold in a descriptive sense

In everyday Icelandic, if you mean that you feel chilly, mér er kalt is the normal choice.

Ég er kaldur/köld can sound more like:

• my body is cold
• I am a cold person
• I am emotionally cold

So for ordinary temperature discomfort, use mér er kalt.

Here svo means so, therefore, or as a result.

It connects the two ideas:

• Teppið er of þunnt = The blanket is too thin
• svo mér er kalt = so I am cold

So the second clause gives the result of the first one.

Because this sentence contains two clauses, and each clause has its own verb:

• Teppið er of þunnt
• mér er kalt

They are joined by svo.

English does the same thing here:

• The blanket is too thin, so I am cold.

So the second er is not extra; it belongs to the second clause.

This relates to Icelandic V2 word order.

In a main clause, the finite verb usually comes in second position. After svo, the conjunction itself does not take that first slot inside the clause, so one element still comes first, and then the verb comes second.

Here that first element is mér, so the clause becomes:

• mér er kalt

and after svo:

• svo mér er kalt

This is normal Icelandic clause order.

A few useful points:

• þ is pronounced like th in thin
• ð is usually like th in this, though at the end of a word it can be softer
• teppið is roughly TEHP-pith
• þunnt starts with the thin sound
• mér sounds roughly like myehr
• kalt is close to kalt

A rough pronunciation guide for the whole sentence is:

TEHP-pith er of THUNNT, svo myehr er kalt