Breakdown of Galleríið hans er fullt af merkilegum málverkum.
vera
to be
hans
his
af
of (in quantity expressions)
fullur
full (not empty)
galleríið
the gallery
málverkið
the painting
merkilegur
remarkable
Questions & Answers about Galleríið hans er fullt af merkilegum málverkum.
Why do both merkilegum and málverkum end in -um?
The preposition af requires the following words to be in the dative case. Málverkum is the dative plural of the noun málverk (painting). Because adjectives must match their noun in case, gender, and number, the adjective merkilegur (remarkable) takes the strong dative plural ending -um, becoming merkilegum. A handy rule: in the dative plural, almost all nouns and strong adjectives end in -um, no matter their gender!
Why is the word for full written as fullt instead of fullur?
Fullt is describing Galleríið (the gallery). Because gallerí is a neuter noun and acts as the subject of the sentence (nominative case), the adjective must take the neuter singular nominative form, which adds a -t. Fullur is the masculine form.
Why does hans come after the noun, and why does the noun have the definite article attached?
In Icelandic, possessive words like hans (his) usually come right after the thing being owned. When they follow the noun, that noun must take the definite article (the attached word for 'the'). So we say Galleríið hans (literally 'the gallery his') instead of placing 'his' before the noun.
Does the phrase fullt af work exactly like 'full of' in English?
Yes, it is a very direct translation! Just remember that the preposition af (of) always forces the words that come immediately after it into the dative case. That is exactly what causes the -um endings on the remarkable paintings later in the sentence.
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