Word
Frásögnin sem varðveitt var er spennandi.
Meaning
The narrative which was preserved is exciting.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Frásögnin sem varðveitt var er spennandi.
vera
to be
spennandi
exciting
sem
who / which / that
varðveita
to preserve
Questions & Answers about Frásögnin sem varðveitt var er spennandi.
Why is the word order varðveitt var instead of var varðveitt?
This is an example of stylistic fronting, which is the main focus of this lesson. In a relative clause starting with sem, a past participle like varðveitt can be moved before the finite verb var. The standard word order sem var varðveitt is perfectly fine in everyday speech, but fronting it to sem varðveitt var gives the sentence a more formal or literary tone.
Why is the participle exactly varðveitt rather than another form?
Even though it has been moved to the front of the verb, the past participle still has to agree with the noun it refers to. It describes frásögnin, which is a feminine, singular, nominative noun. Because of this, the past participle of varðveita takes the feminine singular nominative form, which is varðveitt.
What kind of noun is frásögnin?
The base word is frásögn (narrative or story), which is a feminine noun despite not having a typical feminine ending like -a. The -in at the end is the attached definite article, making it 'the narrative' in the nominative case.
Why doesn't spennandi have a feminine ending to match the noun?
The word spennandi (exciting) is a present participle functioning as an adjective. In Icelandic, all present participles end in -andi and they are entirely indeclinable. This means they never change their endings, no matter what gender, number, or case the noun has.