Breakdown of Eigendurnir seldu húsið í fyrra.
húsið
the house
selja
to sell
eigandinn
the owner
í fyrra
last year
Questions & Answers about Eigendurnir seldu húsið í fyrra.
Why is the plural of eigandi (owner) eigendur here, rather than a more standard plural ending?
Masculine nouns ending in -andi (which usually describe a person doing an action) have a unique plural pattern. The a changes to e and they take the ending -ur, making eigendur. When you add the plural definite article -nir for "the", you get eigendurnir.
What is the infinitive of seldu, and why does it look different here?
The infinitive is selja (to sell). It belongs to a group of verbs that drop the -j- in the past tense. Because the subject (eigendurnir) is plural, it takes the plural past tense form seldu. If it were just one owner, it would be the singular past tense seldi.
Why doesn't the phrase í fyrra (last year) use the Icelandic word for "year"?
Í fyrra is a fixed idiom that translates perfectly to "last year", but literally means "in the former". You don't use the word ár (year) to express this concept in Icelandic. As a bonus, "the year before last" is the related phrase hittifyrra.
Why is húsið in the accusative case here, even though the word doesn't look like it changed?
It is the direct object receiving the action of the verb seldu (sold), which requires the accusative case. However, hús is a neuter noun, and neuter nouns always have identical forms in the nominative and accusative cases, so it stays húsið (the house).
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