Breakdown of Sumir einstaklingar eru mjög feimnir.
vera
to be
mjög
very
sumur
some (sumir, sumar, sum)
einstaklingurinn
the individual
feiminn
shy
Questions & Answers about Sumir einstaklingar eru mjög feimnir.
Why is "some" translated as sumir here?
Sumir is the masculine plural nominative form of the word for "some". It takes this form to match the masculine plural noun einstaklingar (individuals). If the sentence continued to contrast them with "others", you would use the matching masculine plural form aðrir.
How do I know einstaklingar is masculine plural?
The singular form is einstaklingur. The -ur ending is a very common marker for masculine nouns. To make it plural, the -ur drops and is replaced by -ar, giving us einstaklingar.
Why does the adjective for shy (feiminn) change to feimnir?
In Icelandic, adjectives change to agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Because einstaklingar is masculine, plural, and in the nominative case, the base adjective feiminn drops its singular ending and adds the masculine plural ending to become feimnir.
If I wanted to say "Some women are very shy", how would the words change?
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