Breakdown of Fjölskyldan hefur reist stórt hús.
húsið
the house
stór
big
fjölskyldan
the family
hafa
to have
Questions & Answers about Fjölskyldan hefur reist stórt hús.
How do we form the supine reist in this sentence?
Reist comes from the verb reisa (to build/raise). Reisa is a Group 2 weak verb, meaning its past tense ends in -ti (reisti). To form the supine (sagnbót) for most Group 2 verbs, you take the stem and add -t. That gives us reist, which we use after hefur to say "has built".
I thought "to build" was byggja. Why use reisa here?
While byggja is the most common general word for "to build", reisa literally means "to raise" or "to erect". It is very often used in Icelandic when talking about putting up physical structures like buildings, houses, or monuments. Both are perfectly fine to use!
Why does the adjective take the form stórt here instead of just stór?
The adjective must match the noun it describes in gender, number, and case. Hús is a neuter noun, and here it is the direct object of the sentence, meaning it is in the accusative case. For a singular neuter noun in the accusative case, the adjective stór (large) adds a -t to become stórt.
Why does fjölskyldan end in -n?