Breakdown of Hann borðar tvo hamborgara og drekkur þrjá gosdrykki.
og
and
hann
he
borða
to eat
drekka
to drink
tveir
two
þrír
three
hamborgarinn
the hamburger
gosdrykkurinn
the soft drink
Questions & Answers about Hann borðar tvo hamborgara og drekkur þrjá gosdrykki.
Why use tvo and þrjá instead of the normal counting numbers tveir and þrír?
In Icelandic, the numbers 1 through 4 change based on the gender of the noun and its role in the sentence. Both hamborgari (hamburger) and gosdrykkur (soft drink) are masculine nouns, and they are the direct objects being eaten and drunk (accusative case). Therefore, the numbers take the masculine accusative forms tvo (two) and þrjá (three).
Does hamborgara mean one hamburger or multiple hamburgers here?
Here it means multiple. The word hamborgari is a bit tricky: its singular direct object form is hamborgara, but its plural direct object form is exactly the same! You have to rely on the number tvo (two) to know for sure that he is eating more than one.
Why does the word for soft drinks end in -i here (gosdrykki)?
The dictionary form of the word is gosdrykkur, which is a masculine noun. When it becomes a plural direct object (accusative case), the ending changes from -ur to -i, giving us gosdrykki.
What is the word gosdrykki made of?
It is a compound word combining gos (fizz or soda) and drykki (drinks). Icelandic frequently creates words by sticking simpler ones together, so this literally translates to fizz-drinks.
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