Breakdown of Könnunin sýnir að fjöldinn er lítill.
vera
to be
lítill
small / a little (small amount)
sýna
to show
að
that (conjunction)
könnunin
the survey
fjöldinn
the number
Questions & Answers about Könnunin sýnir að fjöldinn er lítill.
Why is lítill (small) used here instead of fáir (few) if we are talking about quantities?
Even though the sentence is about an amount, the noun fjöldinn (the number) is a singular concept. In Icelandic, just like in English, a number itself is described as small (lítill) or large (mikill). You only use the plural word fáir (few) if you are describing plural items directly, like fáir bílar (few cars).
How does the word könnunin break down?
It is made of the feminine noun könnun (survey) plus the attached definite article -in (the). Because it is the subject doing the showing, it is in the nominative case.
Why does fjöldinn end with a double 'n'?
The base noun is fjöldi, which is a masculine word ending in a vowel. To say the number, we add the masculine singular attached article. Because the word already ends in a vowel, the article is simply -nn, creating fjöldinn.
Why is lítill in the nominative case if it comes at the end of the sentence?
The word að (that) links two smaller statements together. In the second statement, fjöldinn er lítill, the verb is er (is). The verb to be does not force words into the accusative case like many action verbs do. Instead, it acts like an equals sign, so the adjective lítill must match the subject fjöldinn in the nominative case.
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