Breakdown of Grillaða kjúklingabringan er á borðinu.
vera
to be
borðið
the table
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
kjúklingabringan
the chicken breast
grilla
to grill
Questions & Answers about Grillaða kjúklingabringan er á borðinu.
Why is the word for 'grilled' written as Grillaða instead of Grilluð?
Here, the past participle grillaður (grilled) is acting as an adjective. Because it modifies a definite noun (the chicken breast, not a chicken breast), it must take the weak declension. For a feminine, nominative, singular noun, the weak ending is -a, giving us Grillaða. If it were indefinite, you would use the strong form Grilluð kjúklingabringa.
Shouldn't there be a separate word for 'the' before the weak adjective, like Hin grillaða kjúklingabringa?
In formal written Icelandic, you will often see the free definite article (hin, hinn, hið) used before a weak adjective and an indefinite noun. But in everyday spoken Icelandic, it is standard to drop that free article and just place the weak adjective right before the noun with its suffixed definite article, as seen here with Grillaða kjúklingabringan.
How is the compound noun kjúklingabringan put together?
It combines kjúklinga (the genitive plural of kjúklingur, meaning 'of chickens') and bringan (the definite nominative form of the feminine noun bringa, meaning 'the breast').
Why is borðinu in the dative case after the preposition á?
The preposition á governs the dative case when it describes a stationary location (where something currently is). If it were describing movement or direction onto the table, it would take the accusative case.
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