Breakdown of Margir nota heyrnartæki í báðum eyrum.
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
nota
to use
margur
many
báðir
both (m, f, n)
eyrað
the ear
heyrnartækið
the hearing aid
Questions & Answers about Margir nota heyrnartæki í báðum eyrum.
Why does the word for ears become eyrum after the preposition í?
The preposition í indicates location here, requiring the dative case. Eyra (ear) belongs to a small, closed set of weak neuter body parts alongside auga, hjarta, and lunga. While their singular cases all just end in -a, their plural forms behave differently. Like almost all Icelandic nouns, they take the standard -um ending in the dative plural, becoming eyrum.
How do you decline the word for both to match eyrum?
The word for both is báðir, and it must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun it modifies. Because eyrum is neuter, plural, and dative, báðir declines into its dative plural form báðum. You can easily spot the matching dative plural -um ending on both words.
Does heyrnartæki mean one hearing aid or multiple hearing aids in this sentence?
It is plural here, meaning multiple hearing aids, even though it looks exactly like the singular dictionary form. The word ends in the strong neuter noun tæki (tool or device). Strong neuter nouns that do not end in a vowel in the singular remain unchanged in their nominative and accusative plural forms.
Why is the adjective margir acting as the subject of the sentence?
Adjectives can stand alone as nouns in Icelandic when the implied noun is obvious from context. Here, the adjective margur is in the masculine plural form margir to refer to people in general, translating smoothly to many people or simply many.
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