Level A1
Second case of the masculine definite article
The definite article “hinn” has the same form in the first and accusative case (the second case) for masculine singular nouns. As you know, you create the first case like so:
- hér er hamborgari + hinn → hér er hamborgarinn (here is the hamburger).
The second case then follows the same pattern:
- um hamborgara + hinn. We don’t care about the “h” and so we’re left with “um hamborgara + inn”. The vowel in the word itself is more important than the vowel in the definite article, and so we get “um hamborgara + nn” → “um hamborgarann” (about the hamburger).
The word “minn” also has the same form in the first and second case in masculine singular:
- hér er hamborgarinn minn – um hamborgarann minn
The “fiskur” pattern
“Hamborgari” follows the “pabbi” declension pattern. Another very common declension pattern is the “fiskur” pattern. It starts like this:
- hér er fiskur – um fisk
With the definite article, we have:
- hér er fiskurinn – um fiskinn