Breakdown of Kærastinn minn fer til Akureyrar.
fara
to go
minn
my (m, f, n: minn, mín, mitt)
kærastinn
the boyfriend
til
to
Akureyri
Akureyri
Questions & Answers about Kærastinn minn fer til Akureyrar.
Why is the town spelled as Akureyrar instead of its normal name, Akureyri?
The preposition til (meaning "to") always forces the destination noun into the genitive case. The base name of the town is Akureyri, and its genitive form changes the ending to become Akureyrar.
Is there a rule for how town names ending in -eyri change after til?
Yes! Because til triggers the genitive case, words ending in -eyri (which means sandbank or spit) predictably change to -eyrar. You will see this same pattern with other Icelandic towns, like Þingeyri becoming til Þingeyrar.
Why does the sentence use the definite form Kærastinn (the boyfriend) when saying "my boyfriend"?
In Icelandic, it is standard to use the definite form of a noun when it is followed by a possessive word like minn (my). So kærastinn minn literally translates to "the boyfriend my".
How do we know fer translates to "is going" rather than just "goes"?
Context tells us! Icelandic does not have a separate continuous tense (the "-ing" verbs) like English does. The single present tense verb fer (from the base verb fara) handles both "he goes" and "he is going".
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