Breakdown of Nemendafélagið hittist aldrei í kennarastofunni.
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
hittast
to meet each other
aldrei
never
kennarastofan
the teachers' lounge
nemendafélagið
the student association
Questions & Answers about Nemendafélagið hittist aldrei í kennarastofunni.
How do nemendafélagið and kennarastofunni demonstrate the plural genitive linking vowel?
Both compounds start with the genitive plural of a person noun. Nemandi (student) becomes nemenda (of students), and kennari (teacher) becomes kennara (of teachers). This -a ending acts as the link to the second noun (félag and stofa), creating compound words that literally translate to 'students' association' and 'teachers' room'.
Why does the verb hittist end in -st?
This is the middle voice form of the verb hitta (to meet). While the active verb hitta requires a direct object (meeting someone), the -st verb hittast is reciprocal, meaning 'to meet each other' or 'to gather'. Here, it is in the third-person singular (hittist) to match the singular subject nemendafélagið.
Why is kennarastofunni in the dative case here?
The preposition í governs the dative case when it indicates a fixed location or where an event takes place. Since the association is meeting inside the lounge without moving to a new destination, the final part of the compound, stofa (room), takes its dative singular form stofu and adds the definite article to become stofunni.
In the compound nemendafélagið, why is the definite article added to the very end instead of to the first word?
When forming compound nouns in Icelandic, only the final word in the chain inflects for case and takes the definite article. The first part, nemenda, is locked in the genitive plural form. You treat the entire newly formed word as a single neuter noun based on félag, so the neuter article -ið attaches to the very end.
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