Welcome to the farm! In this lesson, we'll explore agricultural life while learning the indefinite genitive plural.
| This is a large farm. | Þetta er stór bóndabær. |
| The farmer is standing out in a hayfield. | Bóndinn stendur úti á túni. |
The Indefinite Genitive Plural: -a
When expressing quantities, group memberships (like "a herd of..."), or general categories (like "a type of..."), Icelandic uses the genitive case. Because these groups are made up of multiple indefinite items (just "sheep," not "the sheep"), we use the indefinite genitive plural.
The indefinite genitive plural is one of the most reliable forms in Icelandic: for almost all nouns across all three genders, simply add -a to the stem.
| Noun | Genitive Plural Form | Example Phrase |
|---|---|---|
| kind (sheep) | kinda | hópur kinda (a group of sheep) |
| lamb (lamb) | lamba | hljóð lamba (sounds of lambs) |
| svín (pig) | svína | tegund svína (type of pigs) |
| geit (goat) | geita | hópur geita (a group of goats) |
Notice how the quantity or collection word (hópur, hljóð, tegund) comes first, followed by the noun ending in -a.
| We are looking at a group of sheep. | Við erum að skoða hóp kinda. |
| I hear the sounds of lambs and pigs. | Ég heyri hljóð lamba og svína. |
| What type of goats is the farmer breeding? | Hvaða tegund geita er bóndinn að rækta? |
These genitive groups can be used alongside numbers and adjectives, and act together as the subject or object of a sentence:
| A group of goats is eating the vegetables. | Hópur geita er að borða grænmetið. |
| Look at twenty types of pigs and sheep! | Skoðið tuttugu tegundir svína og kinda! |