Breakdown of Er vinurinn hér? Nei, hann er ekki hér.
vera
to be
hér
here
nei
no
hann
he
ekki
not
vinurinn
the friend
Questions & Answers about Er vinurinn hér? Nei, hann er ekki hér.
Where does ekki (not) go in the sentence?
In a basic Icelandic sentence, ekki comes directly after the verb. In the second sentence, the verb is er (is), so it becomes hann er ekki (he is not). This happens to be exactly the same word order as in English!
Why is the word vinurinn instead of just vinur?
Vinur means "a friend". Unlike English, which puts "the" as a separate word in front, Icelandic attaches "the" to the end of the noun. Adding the masculine ending -inn to vinur makes it vinurinn (the friend).
Why do we use hann (he) in the second sentence?
How does the question word order work in Er vinurinn hér?
To make a yes/no question, Icelandic simply swaps the verb and the subject. A regular statement would be Vinurinn er hér (The friend is here), so moving the verb to the front gives us the question Er vinurinn hér? (Is the friend here?).
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