Hin tignarlega áletrun sem við tölum um er gömul.
The majestic inscription that we talk about is old.
Breakdown of Hin tignarlega áletrun sem við tölum um er gömul.
vera
to be
gamall
old
við
we
tala
to speak
um
about
sem
who / which / that
hinn
the (formal definite article)
tignarlegur
majestic
áletrunin
the inscription
Questions & Answers about Hin tignarlega áletrun sem við tölum um er gömul.
Why does this sentence use hin tignarlega áletrun instead of the more common tignarlega áletrunin?
This sentence uses the formal, literary way of expressing 'the'. Instead of attaching the definite article to the end of the noun (áletrunin), formal Icelandic uses the free-standing article hin before the adjective, and leaves the noun bare (áletrun).
Both tignarlega (majestic) and gömul (old) describe the same noun. Why is one in a weak form and the other strong?
Adjectives that follow the free-standing definite article (hin) must take their weak form, which is why we see tignarlega. However, gömul comes right after the verb er (is) with no article in front of it. Adjectives in this position (predicate adjectives) always take the strong form.
What gender is the word áletrun, and what are the clues in the sentence?
It is feminine. You can spot this from the feminine singular article hin and the feminine singular strong adjective gömul. Also, as a handy rule, almost all Icelandic nouns that end in -un are feminine.
In the phrase sem við tölum um, why is the word um just hanging at the end?
Just like the English translation 'that we talk about', Icelandic often leaves the preposition at the end of a relative clause. The preposition um pairs with the verb tala to mean 'talk about', and it stays right after the verb even when the thing being talked about is represented by the word sem earlier in the clause.
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