Breakdown of Ég er ekki veikur en ég er bara svangur.
vera
to be
ég
I
en
but
veikur
sick
ekki
not
bara
just / only
svangur
hungry
Questions & Answers about Ég er ekki veikur en ég er bara svangur.
Why does ekki come exactly where it does in the first half of the sentence?
In basic Icelandic main clauses, the negative word ekki usually comes right after the verb. Since the verb is er (am), it perfectly matches the English word order: Ég er ekki (I am not).
Would this sentence look different if a woman were speaking?
Yes. Adjectives in Icelandic must match the gender of the person they describe. The -ur ending on veikur (sick) and svangur (hungry) tells us a male is speaking. A female speaker would drop the -ur and say Ég er ekki veik en ég er bara svöng.
Is en the word for 'and' or 'but'?
It means 'but'. Because en is short and basic, learners sometimes mix it up with the Icelandic word for 'and', which is og. Here, it connects two contrasting ideas: not sick, but hungry.
How does the word bara work here?
The word bara means 'just' or 'only'. Like in English, it is usually placed right before the word it emphasizes. Here it goes right before svangur to mean 'just hungry'.
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