Breakdown of Manneskjan er trúir stjörnuspánni er oft trúgjörn.
vera
to be
oft
often
trúa
to believe
manneskjan
the person
stjörnuspáin
the horoscope
er
which / who (formal)
trúgjarn
gullible
Questions & Answers about Manneskjan er trúir stjörnuspánni er oft trúgjörn.
How does the suffix -gjarn work in the word trúgjörn, and why does it have an 'ö' here?
The suffix -gjarn expresses a strong tendency or eagerness to do something. Here, it combines with the root of trúa (to believe) to mean "prone to believing" or "gullible". It is spelled -gjörn because it is an adjective that must agree with the feminine singular noun manneskjan, causing a U-mutation that changes the 'a' to 'ö'.
I'm used to seeing sem for "who" or "that". Why does this sentence use er?
Er is an older, more formal relative particle that means the exact same thing as sem. While you should stick to sem in everyday conversation, you will encounter er very often in news articles, literature, and formal writing at your current reading level.
It looks weird to see er twice in this sentence. Are they doing the same job?
No, they are two entirely different words that just happen to look identical. The first er is the formal relative pronoun ("who"), while the second er is the third-person singular of the verb vera ("is"). The structure is literally "The person who (er) believes... is (er) often...".
Why is stjörnuspánni (the horoscope) in the dative case here?
The verb trúa (to believe) always dictates that the object being believed is in the dative case. Stjörnuspá is a feminine noun, so when you add the definite article in the dative case, it becomes stjörnuspánni.
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