Breakdown of Bærinn er öruggari en borgin.
vera
to be
bærinn
the town
borgin
the city (f)
en
than
öruggur
safe
Questions & Answers about Bærinn er öruggari en borgin.
I know en usually means "but". Does it mean "than" here?
Yes! In Icelandic, the word en does double duty. When you are comparing two things, like with the comparative adjective öruggari, en translates to "than". In other contexts, it means "but".
How did we get öruggari (safer) from the base adjective?
The base adjective is öruggur (safe). To make the comparative "safer", we drop the masculine ending -ur and add the regular comparative ending -ari.
Does öruggari need to change to match the masculine gender of bærinn?
Luckily, no! Regular comparative adjectives ending in -ari only have one form for all three genders in the nominative case. Whether you are talking about a masculine town, a feminine city, or a neuter country, the word stays öruggari.
What is the difference between bær and borg?
Both refer to settlements, but borg is used for a large city, while bær refers to a smaller town or even a farmstead. Notice their different definite articles here because of gender: bær is masculine (bærinn) and borg is feminine (borgin).
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