Word
Læknirinn lagaði handlegginn í gær.
Meaning
The doctor fixed the arm yesterday.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Læknirinn lagaði handlegginn í gær.
læknirinn
the doctor
laga
to fix
í gær
yesterday
handleggurinn
the arm
Questions & Answers about Læknirinn lagaði handlegginn í gær.
Why does handlegginn end in -inn if it is the object of the sentence?
Handleggur (arm) is a masculine noun. In the accusative case (used here because it is the object being fixed), the -ur ending drops, leaving handlegg. When you add the masculine accusative definite article (the suffix for 'the'), you add -inn, making it handlegginn.
Both læknirinn and handlegginn end in -inn. Are they in the same case?
No, they are in different cases! Læknir (doctor) is the subject, so it is in the nominative case. Its nominative definite ending is -inn. Handleggur (arm) is the object, so it is in the accusative case. For many masculine words, the 'the' suffix looks identical in these two cases even though the end of the base word might change.
How does this sentence relate to our current lesson on the genitive case?
How do we know lagaði is in the past tense?
The infinitive verb is að laga (to fix). It is a regular weak verb, meaning it forms its past tense by adding an ending with a dental letter like ð, d, or t. Here, it takes the very common -aði ending for the third-person singular (he/she/it fixed).