Breakdown of Barnið er stórt en kötturinn er lítill.
vera
to be
en
but
stór
big
lítill
small / a little (small amount)
barnið
the child
kötturinn
the cat
Questions & Answers about Barnið er stórt en kötturinn er lítill.
Why does the sentence use stórt instead of just stór?
In Icelandic, adjectives change their endings to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because barn (child) is a neuter noun, the adjective stór (big) gets a -t added to the end to become stórt.
Why is the word for small lítill here?
Just like with the child, the adjective has to match its noun. Köttur (cat) is a masculine noun. For masculine nouns, the adjective lítill stays in its base dictionary form. If we were describing the neuter barn as small, it would change to lítið.
How can I easily remember the genders of barnið and kötturinn?
Does the word en affect the grammar of the rest of the sentence?
No, en simply means "but" and is used to connect two contrasting ideas. It is a coordinating conjunction, which means the word order in the second half of the sentence (kötturinn er lítill) stays exactly the same as a normal standalone sentence.
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