Question 1

Why does ekki come directly after the verb er?

Accepted Answer

In Icelandic main clauses, the word for not (ekki) usually comes right after the verb. This is very similar to English where we say is not, but in Icelandic this placement rule applies to almost all verbs, not just the verb to be.

Question 2

Why does the sentence use hann to refer to a window?

Accepted Answer

In Icelandic, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Because the word for window (gluggi) is a masculine noun, you must use the masculine pronoun hann (he) to refer back to it, rather than a neutral it.

Question 3

I learned that window is gluggi. How does it become Glugginn?

Accepted Answer

Icelandic does not use a separate word for the. Instead, it adds the definite article directly to the end of the noun. For a masculine word like gluggi, adding -nn at the end creates glugginn (the window).

Question 4

Why do the adjectives opinn and stór look like this here?

Accepted Answer

Adjectives in Icelandic must change to match the gender and number of the noun they describe. Because glugginn is a masculine singular noun, both opinn (open) and stór (big) are used in their basic masculine singular forms.

Glugginn er opinn en hann er ekki stór.

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