Learn Icelandic: Hér eru þrjú sæti.

Hér eru þrjú sæti.

Here are three seats.

Breakdown of Hér eru þrjú sæti.

Questions & Answers about Hér eru þrjú sæti.

Why is the word for "three" þrjú instead of þrír?

In Icelandic, the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 change their form to match the gender of the noun they are counting. The word for seat, sæti, is a neuter noun. Therefore, we have to use the neuter form of the number three, which is þrjú.

Is sæti singular or plural here? It looks like the singular form!

It is plural here. Many neuter nouns in Icelandic look exactly the same in both their singular and plural forms when they are the subject of the sentence. So, eitt sæti means "one seat" and þrjú sæti means "three seats".

If sæti doesn't change, how can we tell the sentence is plural?

You can look at the other words in the sentence! The verb eru means "are", which is plural. Also, the number þrjú tells us we are talking about more than one. If it were singular, we would use the singular verb er and say Hér er eitt sæti (Here is one seat).