Breakdown of Ókurteis farþegi raskar hugarró manns.
maður
one (impersonal pronoun)
farþeginn
the passenger
ókurteis
impolite
raska
to disturb (peace, balance)
hugarróin
the peace of mind
Questions & Answers about Ókurteis farþegi raskar hugarró manns.
Why do we use manns here instead of the reflexive pronoun sinn?
Manns is the genitive form of the impersonal pronoun maður (one), so it translates to 'one's'. We cannot use the reflexive pronoun sinn because sinn always refers back to the subject of the sentence. If we wrote raskar hugarró sinni, it would mean the impolite passenger is disturbing his own peace of mind!
The word manns is in the genitive case, but what case is hugarró in?
Hugarró is in the dative case. This is because the verb raska (to disturb or upset) governs the dative. The object being disturbed is the peace of mind (hugarró), so it takes the dative, while manns is just attached in the genitive to show whose peace is being disrupted.
How is the compound word hugarró constructed?
It is made up of hugur (mind) and ró (peace or calm). In Icelandic compound words, the first part is usually in the genitive case to link them together. Here, hugar is the genitive of hugur, making it literally 'peace of the mind'.
Why is ókurteis used here without an ending, even though farþegi ends in an -i?
Ókurteis is following the strong declension because it is describing an indefinite noun (there is no 'the' or 'this' before it). The strong masculine nominative form for this adjective simply has no ending. Farþegi ends in an -i because it is a weak masculine noun, which naturally has that ending in the nominative case.
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