Breakdown of Ég var svefnlaus og þreyttur í gær.
vera
to be
og
and
ég
I
þreyttur
tired
í gær
yesterday
svefnlaus
sleepless
Questions & Answers about Ég var svefnlaus og þreyttur í gær.
How is svefnlaus built, and can I use this -laus ending to make other adjectives?
Since svefnlaus and þreyttur describe the speaker, what gender is the person saying this sentence?
The speaker is male. Adjectives must agree with the subject in gender and number. We know he is male because þreyttur (tired) has the masculine singular ending -ur. If a female were speaking, she would drop the -ur and say: Ég var svefnlaus og þreytt í gær.
Why didn't svefnlaus change to show that the speaker is male, like þreyttur did?
It actually is in the masculine form! For adjectives ending in the suffix -laus, the masculine and feminine nominative singular forms happen to look exactly the same. If the subject were a neuter word, it would get a T at the end to match: svefnlaust.
If I want to emphasize the time by putting í gær at the start of the sentence, does the rest of the word order stay the same?
Learn Ég var svefnlaus og þreyttur í gær 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