Questions & Answers about Góða nótt! Ég er þreyttur.
Why is it Góða instead of the dictionary form Góð?
Greetings like this one act as if there is a hidden phrase like 'I wish you a' in front of them. This makes the greeting the object of the sentence, so the words take the accusative case. Because nótt is a feminine noun, the adjective góð changes to its feminine accusative form, góða.
Wait, if the greeting is in the accusative case, why doesn't nótt change its ending?
It actually is in the accusative case! However, the feminine noun nótt happens to look exactly the same in both its basic nominative (dictionary) form and its accusative form.
Can anyone use the word þreyttur to say they are tired?
No, because adjectives describing a person must match the person's gender in Icelandic. The ending '-ur' on þreyttur tells us that the speaker is male. A female speaker would drop the ending and say Ég er þreytt.
How do you pronounce Ég?
Even though it ends in a G, it does not sound like a hard English G. In this word, the G makes a soft Y sound, making the whole word sound a lot like the made-up English word 'yeg'.
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