Breakdown of Kaupandinn skoðar dýrustu fasteignina.
skoða
to look at
dýr
expensive
kaupandinn
the buyer
fasteignin
the property
Questions & Answers about Kaupandinn skoðar dýrustu fasteignina.
Why is the adjective dýrustu instead of the regular superlative dýrastur?
Because we are talking about the specific property (fasteignina is definite), the adjective must use the "weak" declension. Fasteign is a feminine noun in the accusative case here, and the weak feminine accusative ending for superlatives is -u.
The base superlative is dýrastur with an "a". Shouldn't adding the -u ending just make it dýrastu?
That would make sense, but Icelandic's U-shift (U-mutation) kicks in here! Whenever an a is followed by an u in the next syllable, the a changes to u. So the superlative suffix -ast- plus the weak ending -u becomes -ustu.
Why does the noun fasteign get the ending -ina here?
Fasteign (real estate/property) is a feminine noun. Because it is the direct object being viewed, it takes the accusative case. To say "the property" in the feminine accusative, we add the definite article suffix -ina.
The word for a buyer is kaupandi. What kind of noun is this, and why is it kaupandinn here?
Words ending in -andi usually describe a person doing an action (like a "buyer" from að kaupa, to buy). These are masculine nouns. Because "the buyer" is the subject of the sentence, it is in the nominative case. For these -andi words, you simply add -nn to make them definite: kaupandi + -nn = kaupandinn.
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