Word
Hvar er rottan? Hún er undir teppinu.
Meaning
Where is the rat? It is under the carpet.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Hvar er rottan? Hún er undir teppinu.
Why does undir take the dative case (teppinu) here instead of the accusative?
The preposition undir (under) is a "two-way" preposition. It takes the dative case when describing a static location (where something currently is), and the accusative case when describing direction or movement towards a destination. Since the rat is just located under the carpet, we use the dative.
How can I tell that teppinu is in the dative case?
The base word for carpet is teppi, which is a neuter noun. To say "the carpet" in the dative case, you add the definite dative suffix for neuter nouns, which is -nu. This changes teppi to teppinu.
Why does the sentence use hún (she) to mean "it" when talking about a rat?
In Icelandic, you don't use a neutral "it" just because something is an animal or an object. Pronouns must always match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. The word for rat, rotta, is a feminine noun (which we can also see in its definite form, rottan). Therefore, you have to use the feminine pronoun hún.
Could I use hvert instead of hvar to ask "where is the rat"?