Breakdown of Hvar er brauðið? Það er í skáp.
vera
to be
það
it / there (existential) / the one (n)
brauðið
the bread
hvar
where
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
skápurinn
the cabinet
Questions & Answers about Hvar er brauðið? Það er í skáp.
Why is the word for cabinet spelled skáp here instead of skápur?
Because of the preposition í (in). When í describes a fixed location (where something currently is), the noun that follows must take the dative case. For the masculine noun skápur, the dative case is made by dropping the -ur ending, leaving the bare word skáp.
How do we know skáp translates to 'a cabinet' rather than 'the cabinet'?
Icelandic does not use separate words for 'a' or 'an'. A bare indefinite noun like skáp means 'a cabinet' by default. If we wanted to say 'in the cabinet', we would have to add a definite suffix to the end of the word.
Where is the word for 'the' in the first sentence?
In Icelandic, 'the' is not a separate word before the noun. Instead, it is attached to the end of the word. The base noun is brauð (bread), and adding the neuter definite ending -ið makes it brauðið (the bread).
Why is the pronoun það used to mean 'it'?
Pronouns in Icelandic must match the grammatical gender of the noun they are replacing. Because brauð is a neuter noun, we must use the neuter pronoun það (it) to refer back to it in the second sentence.
Learn Hvar er brauðið? Það er í skáp and more in Icelandic
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free