Breakdown of Eru heyrnartækin í eyrunum hans?
vera
to be
hann
he
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
eyrað
the ear
heyrnartækið
the hearing aid
Questions & Answers about Eru heyrnartækin í eyrunum hans?
Why does the word for "ears" end in -unum here?
The base word is eyra, which belongs to a small, closed set of weak neuter nouns. Its plural is eyru and its dative plural is eyrum. When you attach the dative plural definite article -num, the word becomes eyrunum (the ears).
Why is eyrunum in the dative case rather than the accusative?
The preposition í takes the dative case here because it describes a static location (where the hearing aids currently are). If someone were putting them into his ears, showing motion toward a destination, í would take the accusative case instead.
Why use the definite article on eyrunum if we already specify they are "his" (hans)?
In Icelandic, it is standard to use the definite article with body parts even when they are followed by a possessive pronoun. You say "the ears his" (eyrunum hans) rather than just "ears his" (eyrum hans).
How is the word heyrnartækin formed?
It is a compound of heyrn (hearing) and the neuter noun tæki (device or tool). The first part is in the genitive case (heyrnar), which links the two words. Because tæki is a neuter noun, its plural is also tæki, and adding the neuter plural definite article gives us heyrnartækin.
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