Breakdown of Hún er ekki kennari, heldur læknir.
vera
to be
kennarinn
the teacher
læknirinn
the doctor
hún
she
ekki
not
heldur
rather, but rather
Questions & Answers about Hún er ekki kennari, heldur læknir.
Why does this sentence use heldur for "but" instead of en?
When you make a negative statement with ekki (not) and immediately offer the correct alternative, you must use heldur (meaning "but rather" or "instead"). If you used en, it would sound like you are just adding a new, separate thought rather than directly correcting the first one.
Why is there no word for "a" before kennari and læknir?
Icelandic does not have an indefinite article (words like "a" or "an" in English). The noun kennari simply translates to "a teacher", and læknir means "a doctor".
Why don't kennari and læknir change case after the verb?
They are both in the nominative case, which is the basic dictionary form. The verb vera (to be - seen here as er) acts like an equal sign linking the subject (hún) to what she is. Because it doesn't express an action being done to an object, it doesn't trigger the accusative case.
Since the subject hún (she) is female, why are kennari and læknir masculine nouns?
In Icelandic, many job titles have a fixed grammatical gender that doesn't change to match the person. The words kennari and læknir are always grammatically masculine nouns, even when they are describing a woman.
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