Breakdown of Strákurinn sem venst ekki heimilinu er leiður.
vera
to be
strákurinn
the boy
ekki
not
leiður
sad
sem
who / which / that
venjast
to get used to
heimilið
the home
Questions & Answers about Strákurinn sem venst ekki heimilinu er leiður.
Even though there is no hjá in this sentence, why is the dative case used for heimilinu?
The verb venst (from venjast, meaning "to get used to") forces the noun that follows it to take the dative case. Just like the preposition hjá you are practicing in this lesson, many Icelandic verbs act as "dative triggers." This is why the word for home takes a dative ending here.
What kind of verb is venst and why does it end in -st?
It is a "middle voice" verb, which in Icelandic is marked by the -st ending. The regular verb venja means "to accustom" (doing it to someone else), but adding -st turns it into venjast, meaning "to get oneself used to" something. Here, venst is the "he/she/it" form.
How can I recognize that heimilinu means "the home" rather than just "a home"?
By the ending! Heimili is a neuter noun. When a neuter noun is in the dative case and is definite (meaning "the"), it takes the suffix -nu. So, heimili + nu = heimilinu (to the home).
Why is the adjective leiður (sad) in this specific form with an -ur ending?
Leiður describes strákurinn (the boy) from the very beginning of the sentence. Because strákurinn is a masculine noun in the nominative (subject) case, the adjective must match it. The -ur ending is the standard masculine nominative ending for most adjectives.
Does the word sem (who/that) change form depending on who we are talking about?
No, and that makes it very easy to use! In modern Icelandic, sem is the standard relative pronoun for "who," "which," or "that." It never changes its spelling, no matter the gender, number, or case of the noun it refers back to.
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