Breakdown of Við sjáum fugl hjá stóru eldfjalli.
stór
big
við
we
sjá
to see
fuglinn
the bird
hjá
next to / at (someone's) place, with
eldfjallið
the volcano
Questions & Answers about Við sjáum fugl hjá stóru eldfjalli.
Why are stóru eldfjalli in the dative case here?
They come right after the preposition hjá (by/next to). In Icelandic, hjá always forces the following noun and its describing adjectives into the dative case.
Why does the adjective stóru end in -u?
The adjective stór (big) has to match the neuter dative noun eldfjall. For strong adjectives in the dative singular, neuter words take the -u ending, while masculine takes -um and feminine takes -ri.
Where does the -i at the end of eldfjalli come from?
Since fugl is the object of the verb, why doesn't it have a special ending?
fugl (bird) is indeed in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb sjáum (we see). However, for strong masculine nouns like fugl, the accusative form looks exactly the same as the base dictionary form.
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