Breakdown of Þessi spegill er stór og þessi litur er fallegur.
vera
to be
og
and
stór
big
fallegur
beautiful
þessi
this (m/f)
spegillinn
the mirror
liturinn
the color
Questions & Answers about Þessi spegill er stór og þessi litur er fallegur.
Why do we use þessi for both 'mirror' and 'color'?
Both spegill (mirror) and litur (color) are masculine nouns. In Icelandic, the word for 'this' changes to match the gender of the noun. For both masculine and feminine nouns in the subject position (nominative case), the form is þessi.
When would we use the word þetta instead of þessi?
I've learned that 'the mirror' is spegillinn. Why don't we say þessi spegillinn?
When you use a pointing word like þessi (this) right before a noun, you must use the basic, unattached form of the noun. That means you use the form without 'the' attached to the end. So it is always þessi spegill (this mirror), never þessi spegillinn.
Why does fallegur have an -ur ending, but stór doesn't, if they both describe masculine nouns?
Adjectives change to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because both nouns are masculine subjects, their adjectives must be in the masculine subject form. For many adjectives, like fallegur (beautiful), this form ends in -ur. However, some adjectives like stór (big) just happen to not take an ending in this specific form and stay as the base word.
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