Learn Icelandic: Rafhlaðan er gömul.

Rafhlaðan er gömul.

The battery is old.

Breakdown of Rafhlaðan er gömul.

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Questions & Answers about Rafhlaðan er gömul.

Why is the adjective gömul instead of gamall?

In Icelandic, adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Rafhlaða (battery) is a feminine noun, so we use the feminine form gömul instead of the masculine dictionary form gamall or the neuter form gamalt.

Where is the word for "the" in this sentence?

It is attached to the end of the noun. The base word for battery is rafhlaða. Because it is a feminine noun ending in a vowel, we add -n to the end to make it rafhlaðan (the battery).

Rafhlaða is quite a long word. Can it be broken down into smaller parts?

Yes! It is a compound word made of raf (electricity) and hlaða (which can mean a barn, storehouse, or the verb to load). So a battery is literally an electricity storehouse. Recognizing these parts makes long Icelandic words much easier to remember.

If I wanted to say "The batteries are old", how would this sentence change?

You would change every word to its feminine plural form. The sentence becomes Rafhlöðurnar eru gamlar. Notice that the verb changes to eru (are), the adjective changes to gamlar, and the noun undergoes a vowel shift where the 'a' becomes an 'ö' (-hlöður-) because of the plural ending.