Breakdown of Skemmdin á málverkinu er að miklu leyti óbætanleg.
vera
to be
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
mikill
great, much (adjective: snjórinn er mikill)
málverkið
the painting
Questions & Answers about Skemmdin á málverkinu er að miklu leyti óbætanleg.
Why does 'to a large extent' translate to að miklu leyti?
Why do we say skemmdin á málverkinu using the preposition á instead of a word for 'to'?
In English we say damage 'to' something, but Icelandic typically uses á (on) plus the dative case for damage, marks, or changes affecting a physical object. It literally conceptualizes the damage as being 'on' the painting.
Why is the adjective óbætanleg in the feminine form?
It must agree with the subject of the sentence, skemmdin (the damage). Since skemmdin is a feminine, singular, nominative noun, the predicative adjective óbætanleg (irreparable) takes the feminine singular nominative ending.