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Þetta er hús og hundurinn er hér.

Þetta er hús og hundurinn er hér.
This is a house and the dog is here.
From Lesson 1:Presentative and the definite suffix (þetta er, -inn, -in, -ið)·Icelandic

Breakdown of Þetta er hús og hundurinn er hér.

þetta
this
vera
to be
hér
here
húsið
the house
hundurinn
the dog
og
and

Questions & Answers about Þetta er hús og hundurinn er hér.

Why is there no word for "a" before hús?
In Icelandic, there is no indefinite article (the words "a" or "an" in English). You just use the bare noun by itself. Because of this, hús means both "house" and "a house".
If there is no word for "the", how do we get "the dog" from hundurinn?
Instead of putting a separate word for "the" in front of a noun, Icelandic attaches a suffix (an ending) to the noun itself. The base word for "dog" is hundur. Because hundur is a masculine noun, we add the masculine definite ending -inn to the end, making it hundurinn ("the dog").
Why doesn't hús have a "the" ending like hundurinn?
The first half of the sentence is saying "This is a house", not "the house". When introducing something with þetta er (this is), we use the indefinite, bare form of the noun. If you wanted to say "This is the house", it would be Þetta er húsið.
Does the word þetta (this) change if the noun is masculine or feminine instead of neuter?
Not in this specific structure! When you use þetta er to introduce or point out what something is, you always use the fixed neuter form þetta, regardless of the noun's actual gender. So we say Þetta er hús for a neuter noun, and we would also say Þetta er hundur for a masculine noun.

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