Word
Honum þykir fiskurinn ofeldaður en bragðið er gott.
Meaning
He finds the fish overcooked but the flavor is good.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Honum þykir fiskurinn ofeldaður en bragðið er gott.
vera
to be
en
but
góður
good
fiskurinn
the fish
Questions & Answers about Honum þykir fiskurinn ofeldaður en bragðið er gott.
Why is it Honum instead of Hann at the beginning of the sentence?
The verb þykja (to find or be of the opinion) is a quirky verb. It requires the person holding the opinion to be in the dative case. Therefore, we use the dative pronoun Honum (to him) rather than the nominative Hann.
Why are both fiskurinn and ofeldaður in the nominative case?
Even though Honum is the logical subject (the person thinking), the grammar of þykja forces the thing being judged (fiskurinn) to act as the grammatical subject. Because of this, both the noun and the adjective describing it (ofeldaður) must be in the nominative case.
How is the adjective ofeldaður constructed?
It is built from the prefix of- which means over or too much, attached to eldaður, which is the past participle of the verb elda (to cook). Together they literally mean overcooked.
Why does the second part of the sentence use gott instead of góður?
The adjective must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it describes. Since bragðið (the flavor) is a neuter noun in the nominative singular, the adjective must take the matching neuter form gott.