Breakdown of Venjulega er mjög kalt á Suðurskautslandinu.
vera
to be
mjög
very
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
venjulega
usually
kaldur
cold
Suðurskautslandið
the Antarctic
Questions & Answers about Venjulega er mjög kalt á Suðurskautslandinu.
Why does the verb er come right after Venjulega, and where is the word for 'it'?
Icelandic has a strict verb-second (V2) rule. Because the adverb Venjulega is in the first position, the verb er must be second. In weather sentences like this, the dummy pronoun það (it) is completely dropped if it does not come first in the sentence.
Why is the adjective kalt in the neuter form here?
When describing general weather conditions, Icelandic always uses the neuter singular form of the adjective. Therefore, the base adjective kaldur changes to the neuter kalt.
Why use the preposition á instead of í for a place like Antarctica?
Countries, regions, and continents that are islands or end in the word -land usually take the preposition á (on) rather than í (in) to indicate location. Just like you say á Íslandi, you say á Suðurskautslandinu.
What is happening with the ending of Suðurskautslandinu?
The preposition á requires the dative case when describing a stationary location. The base noun is Suðurskautsland (Antarctica). Unlike English, Icelandic attaches the definite article to this place name. The dative form of the neuter article -ið is -inu, resulting in Suðurskautslandinu.
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