Breakdown of Veturinn er stundum kaldur en vindurinn er verstur.
vera
to be
en
but
stundum
sometimes
kaldur
cold
vindurinn
the wind (m)
verstur
worst
veturinn
the winter
Questions & Answers about Veturinn er stundum kaldur en vindurinn er verstur.
Why does the sentence say Veturinn (the winter) instead of just Vetur (winter)?
In English, we usually drop "the" when making general statements about seasons, like "Winter is cold." In Icelandic, you generally keep the definite article. Since vetur is a masculine noun, it takes the masculine ending -inn to become veturinn.
Why do the adjectives kaldur and verstur both end in -ur?
Adjectives in Icelandic must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because both veturinn (the winter) and vindurinn (the wind) are masculine nouns, the adjectives take the standard masculine singular ending -ur.
How does verstur relate to the normal word for bad?
Verstur means "worst." Just like in English (bad, worse, worst), the words for "bad" are irregular in Icelandic. The base word is slæmur or illur (bad), which changes to verri (worse) and verstur (worst).
The word stundum ends in -um, which is usually a dative plural ending. Is it a noun here?
Historically, it was! It comes from the dative plural of the noun stund (a while or moment). However, in modern Icelandic, it acts as a fixed adverb meaning "sometimes." Because it is an adverb, it never changes its ending.
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