Question 1

Since the lesson is about "ekki vera að" prohibitions, why does this sentence use bannað að instead?

Accepted Answer

The phrase ekki vera að is a direct command used to stop someone from doing an ongoing action, like telling someone "don't be poking that." In contrast, Það er bannað að is a formal, general statement of rules ("It is forbidden to..."), which is exactly what you would expect to read on a museum sign or official warning.

Question 2

Why do we have two different cases for the nouns here, styttuna and stallinum?

Accepted Answer

The cases are governed by their respective prepositions and the context. The verb pota is followed by í plus the accusative case for the specific target being poked, making it the accusative styttuna. However, á stallinum describes a static location ("on the pedestal"), and the two-way preposition á dictates the dative case when expressing location rather than movement towards something.

Question 3

Why is the word for forbidden, bannað, in the neuter form?

Accepted Answer

The sentence uses the dummy subject Það ("It"), which is neuter singular. In Icelandic, the past participle in this kind of impersonal construction must grammatically agree with the subject, so the neuter form bannað is required rather than the masculine bannaður or feminine bönnuð.

Question 4

What is the dictionary form of the word stallinum, and how is the ending formed?

Accepted Answer

The base word is stallur, a masculine noun meaning pedestal or stand. In the dative singular, it drops the -ur ending to become stalli. When you attach the masculine dative definite article suffix -num to the end of the word, it combines to form stallinum.

Það er bannað að pota í styttuna á stallinum.

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