Breakdown of Baráttan gegn óréttlætinu var löng og erfið.
vera
to be
og
and
langur
long
erfiður
difficult
gegn
against (+ Dative)
baráttan
the struggle
óréttlætið
the injustice
Questions & Answers about Baráttan gegn óréttlætinu var löng og erfið.
Why is óréttlætinu in the dative case here?
The preposition gegn (against) always triggers the dative case. Since óréttlæti (injustice) is a neuter noun, its definite dative ending is -nu.
Why does the adjective langur (long) change to löng?
Predicative adjectives (those following verbs like "to be") must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they describe. Baráttan (the struggle) is a feminine nominative singular noun. When langur takes the feminine form, the root vowel a shifts to ö (u-umlaut), making it löng.
Why does the sentence use erfið instead of its dictionary form erfiður?
Just like löng, this adjective must agree with the feminine nominative singular noun baráttan. The masculine adjective erfiður simply drops its -ur ending to form the feminine erfið.
How is the noun óréttlæti built?
Since this lesson is about þrátt fyrir að, how would the word order change if we added a concessive clause to the beginning of this sentence?
If you started the sentence with a subordinate clause like Þrátt fyrir að allir væru þreyttir (Despite the fact that everyone was tired), the main clause would undergo the V2 (verb-second) rule. The verb var would move to directly follow the subordinate clause: ...var baráttan gegn óréttlætinu löng og erfið.
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