Questions & Answers about Mikið er trúðurinn fyndinn.
Doesn't mikið usually mean "much" or "a lot"?
Yes, literally this translates to "Much is the clown funny." However, in Icelandic, starting a sentence with mikið is a very common way to create an exclamation that translates to "How [adjective]!" or "So [adjective]!" in English.
Why is the verb er placed before the subject trúðurinn here?
This is the required word order for this type of exclamation. When you start an exclamative sentence with mikið, the verb must come immediately after it. The pattern is always Mikið + verb + subject.
How would this sentence change if I used the En hvað exclamation structure instead?
It would become En hvað trúðurinn er fyndinn. Notice the difference in word order: while mikið triggers inverted word order (verb then subject), En hvað is followed by the normal subject-then-verb word order.
Why does the adjective fyndinn end in -inn?
Adjectives in Icelandic must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Trúðurinn (the clown) is a masculine, singular noun in the nominative case, so the adjective takes the matching strong masculine singular nominative form, which is fyndinn.
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