Word
Er sjúklingurinn veikur?
Meaning
Is the patient sick?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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Questions & Answers about Er sjúklingurinn veikur?
The current lesson is about the genitive case, so why is sjúklingurinn in the nominative here?
It is the subject of the sentence (the person who is sick). The verb vera (to be) does not trigger the genitive case. If you wanted to use the genitive definite form from this lesson to say 'the patient's doctor', you would drop the nominative -urinn and use the genitive -sins, giving you læknir sjúklingsins.
Why is the adjective veikur instead of veik or veikt?
Adjectives must match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe. Because sjúklingurinn is a masculine, singular noun in the nominative case, the adjective takes the masculine nominative singular form veikur.
The word for patient (sjúklingur) looks like it means 'sick person'. Why use veikur instead of sjúkur for the adjective?
While sjúkur does mean 'sick' and is the root of words like sjúklingur (patient) and sjúkrahús (hospital), Icelanders mostly use veikur in everyday speech to say someone is currently ill. Sjúkur is usually reserved for severe, long-term diseases, or is used metaphorically.