Breakdown of Peysan er ekki í töskunni.
vera
to be
ekki
not
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
peysan
the sweater
taskan
the bag
Questions & Answers about Peysan er ekki í töskunni.
Why does the word for "the bag" change to töskunni?
The basic dictionary form for "a bag" is taska. Because the sweater is physically located inside it, the preposition í (in) forces the noun into the dative case, changing it to tösku. Since we are talking about specifically "the" bag, we add the definite ending for feminine dative nouns (-nni), resulting in töskunni.
Doesn't the preposition í sometimes take the accusative case? Why is it dative here?
Yes, í can take either! The rule of thumb is: if there is no movement and you are just stating a fixed location (the sweater is resting "in" the bag), í triggers the dative case. If there was movement "into" a new place (like you putting the sweater into the bag), it would trigger the accusative case instead.
How do we get "the sweater" from peysan?
In Icelandic, the word for "the" is attached to the end of the noun. The base word for "a sweater" is peysa (a feminine noun). To make it "the sweater" in the subject position (nominative case), we just add -n to get peysan.
Is the word order for ekki (not) exactly the same as in English here?
Yes, in this sentence it lines up perfectly! In a basic statement, the negative word ekki comes right after the verb, just like "not" comes right after "is" in English.
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