Breakdown of Strákarnir eru báðir mjög ungir.
vera
to be
strákurinn
the boy
ungur
young
mjög
very
báðir
both (m, f, n)
Questions & Answers about Strákarnir eru báðir mjög ungir.
Why is the word for "both" spelled báðir in this sentence?
Báðir is the masculine, nominative form of the pronoun meaning "both". In Icelandic, "both" behaves a lot like an adjective and has to agree with the noun it refers to. Since strákarnir (the boys) is a masculine noun in the nominative case (because it is the subject of the sentence), we use báðir.
Notice how báðir and ungir both end in -ir. Is that a coincidence?
Not at all! Both the pronoun báðir (both) and the adjective ungir (young) are describing the same masculine plural subject, strákarnir. In the nominative case, masculine plural adjectives and pronouns very often share this -ir ending.
Could I put báðir at the beginning of the sentence, like "Both the boys..."?
Yes, you can say Báðir strákarnir eru mjög ungir. However, putting báðir right after the verb, as seen in this sentence (literally "The boys are both..."), is a very natural and common word order in Icelandic.
What is the base form of strákarnir?
The base dictionary form (singular, indefinite) is strákur (a boy). To make it plural, it becomes strákar (boys), and to attach the definite article ("the"), we add the ending -nir, giving us strákarnir.
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