Breakdown of Nýi ritarinn vinnur hér í móttökunni.
hér
here
nýr
new
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
vinna
to work (general labor, to do work)
ritarinn
the secretary
móttakan
the reception
Questions & Answers about Nýi ritarinn vinnur hér í móttökunni.
If I want to report this and say 'He said that the new secretary worked here', how does the verb vinnur change?
To report this in the past, you use an að (that) clause and shift the present tense vinnur to the past tense. In formal Icelandic reported speech, this triggers the past subjunctive mood, making it ynni: Hann sagði að nýi ritarinn ynni hér.... However, in casual everyday speech, you will often just hear the regular past indicative vann.
Why do we use the adjective form nýi instead of nýr?
Because ritarinn (the secretary) has the attached definite article -inn, the adjective before it must use the weak declension. For a masculine noun in the nominative case, the weak form of the adjective is nýi.
Why is móttökunni in the dative case here?
The preposition í governs the dative case when it describes a stationary location (where something is happening). Since the secretary works inside the reception area without moving towards it, the feminine noun móttaka takes its dative form móttöku. Adding the definite article gives us í móttökunni.
Is ritari a weak masculine noun because it ends in '-i'?
Yes! Nouns like ritari (secretary) or kennari (teacher) are weak masculine nouns. They are very regular and end in -a for the accusative, dative, and genitive singular cases. Here it is the subject, so it stays in the nominative case with the article added (ritari + -nn = ritarinn).
Learn Nýi ritarinn vinnur hér í móttökunni and more in Icelandic
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free