Questions & Answers about Hvaða bók les kennarinn?
Does the question word hvaða change its ending to match bók?
No! Unlike many words in Icelandic, hvaða (which/what) never changes its ending. It always stays exactly the same, no matter the gender, number, or grammatical case of the noun that follows it.
Can hvaða bók mean "what book" as well as "which book"?
Yes. English sometimes makes a distinction between "which" (from a limited choice) and "what" (open-ended), but Icelandic uses hvaða for both when it is attached directly to a noun.
Why is the verb les placed before the subject kennarinn?
In Icelandic questions that start with a question word or phrase, the verb must come right after that question phrase. Here, the question phrase is the whole chunk Hvaða bók (Which book). The verb les (reads) comes immediately after it, pushing the subject kennarinn (the teacher) to the end.
Is bók in the object form (accusative case) here?
Yes, it is. The teacher (kennarinn) is the subject doing the action. The book is the object being read. The verb lesa (to read) requires its object to be in the accusative case. For the feminine noun bók, the accusative form is identical to its dictionary form!
What is the -nn at the end of kennarinn?
It is the word "the"! In Icelandic, the definite article is attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word. Kennari means "a teacher", and adding the suffix -nn makes it kennarinn (the teacher).
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