Breakdown of Strákurinn er stór en stelpan er lítil.
vera
to be
en
but
stór
big
strákurinn
the boy
stelpan
the girl
lítill
small / a little (small amount)
Questions & Answers about Strákurinn er stór en stelpan er lítil.
Why do the adjectives take the forms stór and lítil here?
In Icelandic, adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Strákurinn (the boy) is a masculine noun, so it uses the masculine form stór. Stelpan (the girl) is a feminine noun, so it uses the feminine form lítil.
If I look up "small" in a dictionary, will I find lítil?
You will usually find the masculine form, which is lítill. To make it feminine to match stelpan, it drops one of the Ls at the end to become lítil.
Where is the word for "the" in strákurinn and stelpan?
Icelandic attaches "the" to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word before it. For the masculine noun strákur (boy), we add -inn to get strákurinn (the boy). For the feminine noun stelpa (girl), we add -n to get stelpan.
Does en mean "but" or "and"?
En translates to "but", which makes sense here because we are contrasting big and small. You might sometimes see it translated as "and" in English when comparing two things, but it always carries a sense of contrast, unlike og (and).
Learn Strákurinn er stór en stelpan er lítil and more in Icelandic
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free