Breakdown of Dýrið sefur í djúpum helli.
sofa
to sleep
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
dýrið
the animal
djúpur
deep
Questions & Answers about Dýrið sefur í djúpum helli.
Why are the words for 'deep cave' in the dative case here?
The preposition í takes the dative case when it describes a stationary location (where something is happening). Since the animal is sleeping inside the cave rather than moving into it, we use the dative. If the animal were moving into the cave, í would take the accusative case instead.
Why does the adjective djúpum end in -um?
This is the strong dative ending for masculine adjectives. Because there is no standalone article like 'the' or 'this' in front of 'deep cave', the adjective uses the strong declension. The noun hellir (cave) is masculine, and in the dative case, strong masculine adjectives take the -um ending.
The dictionary form for 'cave' is hellir. Why is the -r missing here?
Many masculine nouns drop their final -r when they are in the accusative or dative cases. Since the preposition í forces the word into the dative case here, hellir becomes helli.
If the verb for 'to sleep' is sofa, why is it spelled sefur here?
Sofa is a strong verb, which means its main vowel changes when conjugated in the singular present tense. The o changes to an e, giving us ég sef, þú sefur, and það sefur (it sleeps).