Breakdown of Kennarinn situr hjá krökkunum.
kennarinn
the teacher
sitja
to sit
hjá
next to / at (someone's) place, with
krakkinn
the kid
Questions & Answers about Kennarinn situr hjá krökkunum.
Why is krökkunum in the dative case here?
The preposition hjá (next to, by) always requires the noun following it to be in the dative case.
How does the ending on krökkunum mean 'the kids' instead of just 'kids'?
The base word is krakki (kid). In the dative plural, all nouns get the ending -um. So 'kids' in the dative is krökkum. To say 'the kids' (definite), you add the definite suffix -num to the dative plural word, giving you krökkunum.
Why does the first vowel change from 'a' in krakki to 'ö' in krökkunum?
This is a classic example of the U-shift. In Icelandic, when an ending contains a 'u' (like the dative plural -um), an 'a' earlier in the word often changes to 'ö'. That is why the root of krakki becomes krökk- before adding the endings.
What is happening with the ending on kennarinn?
The base word is kennari (teacher). Because it is the subject of the sentence, it is in the nominative case. To say 'the teacher', we attach the masculine definite article. Since kennari already ends in a vowel, it just takes -nn, making it kennarinn.
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