Breakdown of Nánast tíu þúsund manns eru samankomin hér fyrir skrúðgönguna.
vera
to be
hér
here
tíu
ten
fyrir
for (on someone's behalf; as in "thanks for")
Questions & Answers about Nánast tíu þúsund manns eru samankomin hér fyrir skrúðgönguna.
Why do we use manns here instead of fólk or the plural menn?
When stating a specific quantity of people, especially starting from the number five and with large numbers like hundrað and þúsund, Icelandic typically uses the invariable partitive genitive manns. It functions grammatically like saying 'ten thousand of a person'.
If manns is grammatically a singular word, why is the verb eru in the plural?
The verb agrees with the actual quantity acting as the subject, which is tíu þúsund. Because ten thousand is a plural amount, the verb takes the plural form eru.
Why does the participle samankomin take the neuter plural form instead of matching the masculine gender of people?
It grammatically agrees with the word þúsund, which is a neuter noun in Icelandic. Since there are ten of them, the participle must take the neuter plural nominative form samankomin, rather than a masculine plural form like samankomnir.
Why is fyrir skrúðgönguna in the accusative case here? Doesn't fyrir often take the dative?
The preposition fyrir takes the dative when describing a static location (like being 'in front of' something). However, when it means 'for' in the sense of a purpose, an event, or a benefit, it strictly takes the accusative case.