Breakdown of Ég er í gráum jakka.
vera
to be
ég
I
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
jakkinn
the jacket
grár
grey
Questions & Answers about Ég er í gráum jakka.
Does vera í always mean 'wearing'?
Yes, when talking about clothing! While it literally translates to 'to be in', the phrase vera í is the standard Icelandic way to say you are wearing something.
Why are the words gráum and jakka in the dative case here?
The preposition í requires the dative case when it describes a state of being or a stationary position, like wearing clothes. If you were talking about movement, like putting a jacket on, í would take the accusative case instead.
Why does the adjective grár (grey) change to gráum?
Adjectives must match the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Since jakki is a masculine singular noun in the dative case, the adjective takes the dative masculine ending -um, becoming gráum.
I know the dictionary form for jacket is jakki. Why does it end in -a here?
The word jakki is a weak masculine noun, which means it ends in the vowel -i in its base form. These nouns are very predictable: they drop the -i and add -a whenever they are in the accusative, dative, or genitive cases.
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