Questions & Answers about Er hann Íslendingur?
Why does the sentence start with the verb Er?
To ask a yes/no question in Icelandic, you swap the subject and the verb. A statement would be Hann er Íslendingur (He is an Icelander), so the question becomes Er hann Íslendingur? (Is he an Icelander?).
Why do we use Er here instead of Ert?
Er is the form of the verb vera (to be) that matches the pronoun hann (he). The forms you are learning right now are ég er (I am), þú ert (you are), and hann/hún/það er (he/she/it is).
Where is the word for "an" in this sentence?
Icelandic doesn't have an indefinite article, which are words like "a" or "an" in English. The single word Íslendingur translates to either "Icelander" or "an Icelander" depending on what sounds best in English.
Why does Íslendingur end in -ur?
The -ur ending is a very common ending for masculine nouns in their basic dictionary form. Also, notice that nationalities are capitalized in Icelandic just like they are in English!
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