Reipið er of stutt fyrir svona leik, en hún heldur samt í reipið og brosir.

to be

Breakdown of Reipið er of stutt fyrir svona leik, en hún heldur samt í reipið og brosir.

• hún: she
• fyrir: for
• og: and

Questions & Answers about Reipið er of stutt fyrir svona leik, en hún heldur samt í reipið og brosir.

Why does reipi appear as reipið?

Because Icelandic usually attaches the definite article to the end of the noun.

• reipi = rope
• reipið = the rope

The ending -ið is the definite article here. Reipi is a neuter noun, and reipið is its definite singular form.

Also, in this sentence, reipið appears twice. That is normal: for many neuter nouns, the nominative and accusative singular look the same, so reipið can mean both the rope as the subject and the rope as the object.

Why is it stutt and not stuttur?

Because adjectives in Icelandic must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.

Here the noun is reipið, which is:

• neuter
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective must also be in the neuter singular nominative form:

• stuttur = masculine
• stutt = neuter here

So:

• Reipið er stutt = The rope is short

With of, it becomes too short:

• Reipið er of stutt = The rope is too short