Breakdown of Fjögurra tíma flugið var mjög leiðinlegt.
vera
to be
mjög
very
leiðinlegur
boring
fjórir
four
tíminn
the time / the class (m) / the hour
flugið
the flight
Questions & Answers about Fjögurra tíma flugið var mjög leiðinlegt.
Why is the number four written as fjögurra here?
It is the genitive form of the number four. In Icelandic, phrases that measure time, distance, or age, like a 'four-hour' flight, are phrased literally as a flight 'of four hours'. This requires both the number and the noun it measures to be in the genitive case.
Does the form fjögurra change depending on the gender of the noun?
No, and that is a helpful feature of the genitive plural! While the numbers 1 to 4 change depending on gender in the nominative, accusative, and dative cases, they share a single form across all genders in the genitive. So it is always fjögurra, whether the noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter.
Why is tíma used instead of the nominative plural tímar?
Because it must match the genitive case of the number fjögurra. Together, fjögurra tíma acts as a descriptive phrase meaning 'of four hours'. Tíma is the genitive plural form of the masculine noun tími (hour).
Why does leiðinlegt end in -t instead of -ur?
Adjectives must agree with the noun they describe. The subject of the sentence is flugið (the flight). Because flug is a neuter noun, the adjective leiðinlegur (boring) must drop its default masculine ending and take the neuter singular ending, becoming leiðinlegt.
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