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Questions & Answers about Ég smakkaði pitsuna.
How do we know smakkaði is in the past tense?
The ending -aði tells us it happened in the past. The verb smakka (to taste) belongs to Group 1 of Icelandic weak verbs. To make the past tense for I, he, she, or it, you just add -aði to the verb stem.
Would the verb ending change if the sentence was 'He tasted the pizza'?
No, it would still be smakkaði. For Group 1 weak verbs in the simple past tense, the forms for ég (I), hann (he), hún (she), and það (it) are all exactly the same.
Why does the word for pizza change to pitsuna?
It combines two things: the grammatical case and the word for 'the'. The base word is pitsa. Because the pizza is the direct object receiving the action (the thing being tasted), it takes the accusative form pitsu. Then, you attach the feminine ending for 'the' (-na) to the end, making it pitsuna.
Is pitsa really the Icelandic spelling of pizza?
Yes! Icelandic frequently adapts foreign loanwords to match its own alphabet and spelling rules. Since the Icelandic alphabet doesn't use the letter Z, the word is spelled pitsa to match how it sounds.