Breakdown of Það að þetta sjávardýr er svona gáfað er heillandi.
vera
to be
það
it / there (existential) / the one (n)
þessi
this (m/f)
að
that (conjunction)
svona
so, like this
gáfaður
intelligent
heillandi
fascinating
sjávardýrið
the marine animal
Questions & Answers about Það að þetta sjávardýr er svona gáfað er heillandi.
Why do we use Það að at the beginning instead of just starting with Að?
The phrase Það að turns the entire following clause into a noun phrase, equivalent to 'The fact that'. While English can start a sentence with 'That...', Icelandic strongly prefers using the dummy pronoun það as a grammatical placeholder for the main sentence when a subordinate clause acts as the subject.
Why is the adjective gáfað in this specific form?
It describes the noun sjávardýr (marine animal). Because the root word dýr is a neuter noun, the adjective must agree with it and take the neuter singular nominative form, which is gáfað (rather than the masculine gáfaður).
What is the difference between using svona gáfað and svo gáfað in this sentence?
Both can translate to 'so smart', but svona specifically means 'this smart' or 'smart like this'. Using svona emphasizes that the speaker is reacting to the specific, observed intelligence of the animal they are talking about.
Why doesn't the adjective heillandi change its ending to match the neuter subject?
The word heillandi (fascinating) is a present participle, which is similar to English words ending in '-ing'. In Icelandic, when present participles are used as adjectives, they are completely invariable. They keep their -andi ending regardless of the gender, number, or case of the noun they describe.
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