Breakdown of Margir erlendir ferðamenn koma til Íslands.
koma
to come
Ísland
Iceland
til
to
ferðamaðurinn
the tourist
margur
many
erlendur
foreign
Questions & Answers about Margir erlendir ferðamenn koma til Íslands.
Why do we use the strong adjective erlendir here instead of the weak form?
In Icelandic, the word margir (many) does not trigger the weak adjective declension. Since there is no definite article or demonstrative pronoun before it, erlendir stays in the strong form to match the nominative masculine plural noun ferðamenn.
How does the word ferðamaður change to become ferðamenn?
Ferðamaður (tourist) is a compound word ending in -maður (man or person). Nouns ending this way always change their root vowel and become -menn in the nominative and accusative plural.
Why does Ísland have an -s at the end in this sentence?
The preposition til (to) always forces the noun that follows it into the genitive case. For the neuter noun Ísland, the genitive singular is formed by adding an -s, making it til Íslands.
We say we are in Iceland using á Íslandi, so why don't we use á when traveling there?
When expressing movement or traveling to a destination country, you almost always use the preposition til followed by the genitive case. You use á Íslandi (with the dative case) only when describing a static location, meaning you have already arrived.
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