Questions & Answers about Heimavinnan í dag er létt.
Doesn't létt usually mean "light" in weight? Why is it used for "easy" here?
Yes, léttur primarily means "light" as in weight, but it is extremely common in Icelandic to use it to mean "easy" when talking about tasks, tests, or homework. You could also use the word auðveld, but létt is very natural and conversational here.
Why is the adjective létt instead of the dictionary form léttur?
Adjectives must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe. Because heimavinnan (the homework) is a feminine singular noun in the nominative case, the adjective drops the masculine -ur ending and takes the feminine singular form létt.
Can I change the word order and say "Í dag er heimavinnan létt" instead?
Absolutely. If you say "Í dag er heimavinnan létt", you are putting the emphasis slightly more on "today". The phrasing used in this sentence, Heimavinnan í dag, treats "the homework today" as a single noun phrase, which is a common way to describe nouns using time phrases in Icelandic.
Why does the word for "the homework" end in -an rather than just -in?
The base word is heimavinna, which is a weak feminine noun ending in -a. When adding the feminine definite article -in (meaning "the") to a noun that already ends in -a, the vowels merge. Therefore, heimavinna becomes heimavinnan rather than "heimavinnain".
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