Breakdown of Keppandinn er fljótari en ég, en sigurvegarinn er fljótastur.
vera
to be
ég
I
en
but
sigurvegarinn
the winner
fljótur
fast (adjective)
keppandinn
the competitor
Questions & Answers about Keppandinn er fljótari en ég, en sigurvegarinn er fljótastur.
Why is the superlative form fljótastur instead of just fljótast?
In Icelandic, adjectives in the superlative degree must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Here, fljótastur describes sigurvegarinn (the winner), which is a masculine singular noun in the nominative case, so it takes the strong masculine nominative ending -ur.
How does the comparative fljótari relate to the superlative fljótastur?
The base adjective is fljótur (fast). To make the comparative form (faster), you drop the masculine ending -ur and add -ari, making fljótari. For the superlative (fastest) in the strong declension, you add -astur to the stem, giving you fljótastur.
Why do we use en ég (than I) here instead of an object pronoun like mig (me)?
When you use en (than) to compare two things, the pronoun takes the exact same case as the noun it is being compared to. Because keppandinn (the competitor) is the subject of the sentence and is in the nominative case, the pronoun ég must also be in the nominative case.
How are the definite nouns keppandinn and sigurvegarinn formed?
Both are masculine nouns with the definite article (the) attached at the end. Keppandi (competitor) ends in -andi, and sigurvegari (winner) ends in -ari. Because they are in the nominative case, you simply add the masculine definite article -nn to the end of each word to say "the competitor" and "the winner".
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