Breakdown of Nemandinn finnur pennana á gólfinu.
nemandinn
the student
finna
to find
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
gólfið
the floor
penninn
the pen
Questions & Answers about Nemandinn finnur pennana á gólfinu.
Why is 'the pens' translated as pennana here?
Pennana is the accusative plural definite form of the masculine noun penni (pen). Because the pens are the direct object being found, they must be in the accusative case. The bare accusative plural is penna (pens), and adding the definite article suffix gives us pennana (the pens).
Wait, doesn't the accusative plural usually look exactly like the nominative plural?
That is true for many nouns, but not for weak masculine nouns (nouns that end in -i in their dictionary form, like penni). For these, the nominative plural is pennar, but the accusative plural is penna. When you add the definite article to that accusative form, penna becomes pennana.
How does Nemandinn get the meaning of 'the student'?
Nemandi is a weak masculine noun meaning 'student'. Because the student is the subject of the sentence doing the finding, it is in the nominative case. To make it definite ('the student'), we add the article -nn to the end, creating Nemandinn.
Why is it á gólfinu (dative) instead of á gólfið (accusative)?
The preposition á (on) can take either the accusative or the dative case. When it describes a stationary location (where something is currently resting), it triggers the dative case. Because the pens are already sitting on the floor, the neuter noun gólf becomes gólfinu (the floor) in the dative definite.
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