Breakdown of Hún er ein af bestu söngkonunum.
vera
to be
hún
she
góður
good
einn
one
af
of (in quantity expressions)
söngkonan
the female singer
Questions & Answers about Hún er ein af bestu söngkonunum.
Why is it ein instead of the default masculine form einn?
The word for 'one' must agree in gender with the person or thing it refers to. Since hún (she) is female, and the noun she belongs to is söngkona (female singer), we use the feminine nominative form ein. If we were talking about a man, it would be Hann er einn af...
The preposition af means 'of' here. Why does it force the dative case?
The preposition af is a strict grammatical rule-follower: it always forces the noun phrase that follows it into the dative case. In this 'one of' construction, af indicates the larger group you are selecting from, so the entire phrase bestu söngkonunum takes the dative plural.
Why does söngkonunum have such a long ending?
In Icelandic, saying 'one of the...' requires the definite article to be attached to the end of the noun. The base dative plural word is söngkonum (singers). When you add the dative plural definite article suffix -num (the), it stacks together to make söngkonunum (the singers).
If the phrase is dative plural, why is the adjective bestu and not bestum?
Because the noun has the definite article attached to it, the adjective must use its 'weak' declension. In the weak declension, plural adjectives always end in -u no matter what case they are in. You would only use the strong dative plural ending -um if the noun was indefinite, but 'one of best singers' without 'the' doesn't make sense here!
Learn Hún er ein af bestu söngkonunum 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