Breakdown of Ég var mjög trúgjarn þegar ég var ungur.
vera
to be
ég
I
ungur
young
mjög
very
þegar
when
trúgjarn
gullible
Questions & Answers about Ég var mjög trúgjarn þegar ég var ungur.
How does the suffix -gjarn create the meaning of the word trúgjarn?
The suffix -gjarn is used to describe a propensity, meaning that someone is prone to doing something or has a strong tendency toward it. Here, it attaches to the noun trú (belief or faith). Someone who is trúgjarn is literally "prone to believing", which translates to "gullible" or "credulous".
Would this sentence look different if the speaker were female?
Yes. Adjectives ending in -gjarn decline to match the subject's gender. Here, both trúgjarn and ungur are in the masculine singular form. A female speaker would change both adjectives and say: Ég var mjög trúgjörn þegar ég var ung.
Why does the feminine form of this suffix change to -gjörn?
The shift from -gjarn to -gjörn happens because of the U-shift (u-hljóðvarp). When forming the feminine singular nominative, a historical ending pulls the root vowel "a" towards an "ö" sound. You will see this same vowel shift in all adjectives ending in -gjarn.
Why is þegar used here for "when" instead of hvenær?
A common trap for learners is mixing up these two words for "when". The word hvenær is strictly a question word used to ask about time. Because this sentence is a statement connecting two events, you must use the conjunction þegar.
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