Questions & Answers about Búðin er til hægri.
I know the suffix means "the", but why does this sentence use -in instead of -inn or -ið?
Because búð (shop) is a feminine noun. In the nominative case, which is used for the subject of the sentence, feminine nouns take the -in suffix. If the noun were masculine it would take -inn, and if it were neuter it would take -ið.
I learned that the preposition til takes the genitive case. Why doesn't hægri change its ending?
You are right that the preposition til forces the next word into the genitive case! However, the direction words hægri (right) and vinstri (left) are special adjectives in Icelandic. They have only one form and always end in -i regardless of their grammatical case or gender. So hægri is technically in the genitive case here, but its spelling simply doesn't change.
How would I change this sentence to say the shop is to the left?
You would just replace hægri with the Icelandic word for left, which is vinstri. The phrase is built exactly the same way: til vinstri means to the left.
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