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Kassarnir og flöskurnar eru hér.

Kassarnir og flöskurnar eru hér.
The boxes and the bottles are here.
From Lesson 28:Definite plural nouns (-nir, -nar, -in)·Icelandic

Breakdown of Kassarnir og flöskurnar eru hér.

vera
to be
hér
here
og
and
kassinn
the box
flaskan
the bottle

Questions & Answers about Kassarnir og flöskurnar eru hér.

Why do kassarnir and flöskurnar have different endings if they both mean "the" in the plural?
It depends on the gender of the noun. Kassi (box) is a masculine noun. Its plural is kassar, and we add the definite ending -nir to make kassarnir (the boxes). Flaska (bottle) is a feminine noun. Its plural is flöskur, and we add the definite ending -nar to make flöskurnar (the bottles).
Why does the first vowel in flöskurnar change to an "ö" when the singular word is flaska?
This happens because of a common Icelandic rule called the U-shift. Whenever an a is followed by a u in the next part of the word, the a changes to an ö. Because the plural of flaska is flöskur, the vowel shifts. It stays as an ö when we add the definite ending to make flöskurnar.
Why do we use eru here instead of er?
Eru is the plural form of the verb "to be" (are). Because our subjects (kassarnir and flöskurnar) are plural, we must use eru. If there was only one box, we would use the singular form er (is) and say kassinn er hér (the box is here).

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