Learn Icelandic: Nýja skrifstofan er frekar kaldaleg. - The new office is quite uninviting.

The root is kaldur (cold). The suffix -legur is highly productive and often translates to "-looking", "-like", or "-ly". While kaldur usually describes physical temperature, adding the suffix describes the appearance or vibe of being cold. For a room, this naturally translates to "uninviting", "bleak", or "dreary".

Why is there an -a- in the middle of kaldaleg?

When deriving new words with -legur, the suffix is often attached to the genitive plural form of the root word. The genitive plural of the adjective kaldur is kalda, giving us the base for kaldalegur rather than just slapping the suffix directly onto the root stem.

Skrifstofan has the definite article attached. Why is nýja used here instead of the base form ný?

Because the noun is definite (indicated by the attached article -n in skrifstofan), any attributive adjective placed directly in front of it must use the weak declension. The weak feminine singular nominative form of nýr (new) is nýja.

If nýja is in the weak declension to match the definite noun, why is kaldaleg in the strong declension?