Breakdown of Hann er að klóra marmarann!
vera
to be
hann
he
að
to (infinitive marker)
marmarinn
the marble
klóra
to scratch
Questions & Answers about Hann er að klóra marmarann!
Since the current lesson is about continuous prohibitions, how would we tell him to stop scratching the marble?
You would use the imperative form of vera with ekki, keeping the continuous structure. The command would be Ekki vera að klóra marmarann! which means 'Stop scratching the marble!' or 'Don't be scratching the marble!'
I learned that the verb klóra takes the dative case. Why is marmarann in the accusative here?
This is an important distinction! Klóra governs the dative case when it means scratching a body part to relieve an itch (like hann klórar sér). However, when it means physically scraping or damaging a surface, it governs the accusative case. Since he is damaging the marble, marmarann is accusative.
How exactly is the word marmarann formed from the base noun?
The root word is marmari (marble), which is a weak masculine noun. In the accusative case, marmari becomes marmara. To say 'the marble', you attach the masculine accusative definite article -nn, giving us the final form marmarann.
Learn Hann er að klóra marmarann and more in Icelandic
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free