Breakdown of Hóstinn er slæmur en lungað í henni er fínt.
vera
to be
hún
she
en
but
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
slæmur
bad
fínn
fine
hóstinn
the cough
lungað
the lung
Questions & Answers about Hóstinn er slæmur en lungað í henni er fínt.
Why do we say lungað í henni instead of lunga hennar for "her lung"?
For internal body parts like a lung or a stomach, Icelandic usually uses the definite form of the body part followed by the preposition í and a dative pronoun. Instead of using a possessive word like hennar, you literally say "the lung in her" (lungað í henni).
What is the dictionary form of lungað, and why does it end in -að?
The base word is lunga (lung), which is a neuter noun. To make it definite ("the lung"), you just add -ð to the final vowel, giving us lungað. Because it is neuter, it doesn't take the -inn or -in endings you see on masculine or feminine nouns.
Why is the word for "fine" spelled fínt here instead of fínn?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because lunga is a neuter noun, the adjective fínn takes the neuter ending -t, becoming fínt. In the first half of the sentence, slæmur (bad) describes the masculine noun hósti, so it uses the masculine ending -ur.
Is the dictionary form of hóstinn just hóst?
No, the base word is hósti (cough), which is a masculine noun. When we add the definite article to say "the cough", we simply add -nn to the final vowel, making it hóstinn.
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