Word
Osturinn er í kassa.
Meaning
The cheese is in a box.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Osturinn er í kassa.
vera
to be
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
osturinn
the cheese
kassinn
the box
Questions & Answers about Osturinn er í kassa.
Why is the word for box spelled kassa here instead of kassi?
It comes right after the preposition í (in). When í is used to describe a fixed location (like telling where the cheese is resting), it forces the following noun into the dative case. The dative form of the masculine noun kassi is kassa.
Where is the word for "a" in "a box"?
Icelandic doesn't have an indefinite article (words for "a" or "an"). You just use the bare noun. Because of this, the bare dative noun kassa translates naturally to "a box" in English.
Why does Osturinn have -inn at the end?
That is the attached word for "the". The base word for cheese is ostur. Because it is the subject of the sentence, it stays in the nominative case. Adding the masculine definite article ending (-inn) gives us osturinn (the cheese).
If í means "in", does it always force the noun into the dative case?
Not always! Prepositions like í and á take the dative case when describing a static location (where something currently is). If someone were actively putting the cheese into the box, there would be motion to a new place, and í would trigger the accusative case instead.