Breakdown of Fasteignasalinn selur minnstu íbúðina.
selja
to sell
íbúðin
the apartment
minnstur
smallest
fasteignasalinn
the real estate agent
Questions & Answers about Fasteignasalinn selur minnstu íbúðina.
Why is the adjective minnstu used here instead of minnstur or minnsta?
In this sentence, "the smallest apartment" is a specific, definite thing, so the adjective must use its "weak" declension. Because íbúðina (the apartment) is feminine and in the accusative case as the direct object, the correct weak ending for the superlative adjective is -u, making it minnstu.
Wait, the basic word for "small" is lítill. How does it become minnstu?
Lítill is one of those common adjectives with completely irregular forms, just like "little/less/least" in English. The base superlative form for "least" or "smallest" is minnstur, which declines here to the weak feminine accusative form minnstu.
Both the adjective and the noun are definite. Why doesn't the adjective have a "the" word attached to it?
In standard Icelandic, when you pair an adjective with a definite noun, the noun gets the attached definite article (like the -ina in íbúðina) and the adjective simply shifts into its weak form (like minnstu). The weak form itself signals that the phrase is definite.
Why does íbúðina end in -ina instead of just -in?