Word
Fuglinn deyr í kuldanum.
Meaning
The bird dies in the cold.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Fuglinn deyr í kuldanum.
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
fuglinn
the bird
kuldinn
the cold
deyja
to die
Questions & Answers about Fuglinn deyr í kuldanum.
What is the base verb for deyr and how is it conjugated?
The infinitive is að deyja (to die). In the present tense, the stem changes slightly: ég dey (I die), þú deyrð (you die), and hann/hún/það deyr (he/she/it dies). Since fuglinn acts as a third-person subject, we use deyr.
Why does kuldanum have the -num ending?
This is the word kuldi (cold) combined with the ending for "the". Because the bird is located in the cold, the preposition í forces the noun into the dative case. The dative form of kuldi is kulda, and when you add the masculine dative definite article -num ("the"), it becomes kuldanum.
Does the preposition í always trigger the dative case?
No, í is a two-way preposition. It takes the dative case when describing a stationary location or state (like here, dying in the cold). However, it takes the accusative case when describing movement or direction into a place.
Why isn't Fuglinn also in the dative case?
Fuglinn (the bird) is the subject of the sentence—it is the one performing the action. Therefore, it stays in the nominative (default) case. The suffix -inn is the nominative masculine ending for "the" attached to fugl.