Breakdown of Sú í horninu er vinkona mín.
vera
to be
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
minn
my (m, f, n: minn, mín, mitt)
vinkonan
the female friend
sá
that (sá, sú, það; þann)
hornið
the corner
Questions & Answers about Sú í horninu er vinkona mín.
Why is sú used here instead of það or sá to mean "that one"?
Sú is the feminine nominative form of the demonstrative pronoun sá (that/the one). It is feminine because it refers to vinkona (a female friend). If you were pointing out a male friend (vinur), you would use the masculine form and say sá í horninu.
Why does horninu end in -inu here?
The word horn (corner) is a neuter noun. The preposition í takes the dative case when it describes a stationary location (being in the corner, rather than moving into it). The suffix -inu is the dative neuter ending for the attached definite article (the).
Why is the word order vinkona mín instead of mín vinkona?
In Icelandic, possessive pronouns like mín (my) almost always come right after the noun they belong to. Putting it before the noun sounds very poetic or overly emphatic, like saying "a friend of mine" to contrast with someone else's friend.
Why doesn't vinkona have the definite article attached to it?
When you use a possessive pronoun like mín immediately after a noun, the noun usually stays in its indefinite form. So "my friend" is simply vinkona mín, not vinkonan mín.
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