Breakdown of Sjötíu og sjö bílar keyra um bæinn.
bíllinn
the car
og
and
sjö
seven
um
around
bærinn
the town
keyra
to drive
sjötíu
seventy
Questions & Answers about Sjötíu og sjö bílar keyra um bæinn.
Why is there an og in sjötíu og sjö?
In Icelandic, when you form a compound number with tens and ones, you must connect them with og (and). You literally say seventy and seven. This pattern applies to all numbers from 21 to 99, except the flat tens themselves.
How is the word sjötíu formed?
Just like in English where we add the suffix -ty to make numbers like seven into seventy, Icelandic adds -tíu. It comes from the word for ten, so sjötíu is built from sjö (seven) plus -tíu (tens). You will see this ending on most of the tens up to ninety!
Do I need to make sjötíu og sjö match the masculine gender of bílar (cars)?
Luckily, no! While the numbers 1 through 4 change their form to match the gender and case of the noun they describe, numbers from 5 upwards do not change. Since both 70 and 7 are above 4, sjötíu og sjö stays exactly the same no matter what noun follows it.
Why is the word for town written as bæinn instead of bærinn here?
The preposition um (around) requires the noun that follows it to be in the accusative case. The basic dictionary form of the word is bær, and its nominative definite form (the town) is bærinn. In the accusative case, the r is dropped, making it bæinn.
Learn Sjötíu og sjö bílar keyra um bæinn and more in Icelandic
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free