# Icelandic: Many people are younger than I am



## Alxmrphi

Sæl öl, 

Ég er með auðveldri spurningu í dag.
Hvað segir maður "Many people are younger than I am" á íslensku?
Tilraunin mín er:_ Miklir (mennir) eru minnstri þá ég_.

Er það rétt?

Takk fyrir.
Alex


----------



## sindridah

Alxmrphi said:


> Sæl öl,
> 
> Ég er með auðveldri auðvelda ( No need to compare the adjective  ) spurningu í dag.
> Hvað Hvernig  segir maður "Many people are younger than I am" á íslensku?
> Tilraunin mín er:_ Miklir (mennir) eru minnstri þá ég_.
> 
> Er það rétt?
> 
> Takk fyrir.
> Alex


 
I would say: "Margt fólk er yngra en ég" 

This "Many people are younger then me(?) / I am" is confusing me, Are you looking for some different thing?  

Got some help from http://visindavefur.hi.is/svar.php?id=53279


----------



## Alxmrphi

> Ég er með auðveldri auðvelda ( No need to compare the adjective



I thought *auðveldri* was just the feminine dative singular? 
I didn't mean to use a comparative. I don't understand why it's _auðvelda_. I can't see how it works by looking at the declensions on that site. I thought it needs to be feminine (because of spurning), dative (because it's following með), and singular. So that's why I looked and got auðveldri.

I looked up the wrong word, I looked up* lítill* when I meant *ungur*!
Thanks for your answer, now I know how to say it better


----------



## Tjahzi

Could it be accusative?


----------



## Alxmrphi

Tjahzi said:


> Could it be accusative?



You're right, I usually associate *með* with dative, but just checked the dictionary and the _'have'_ usage is listed under accusative! I didn't even notice it when I was looking at the declensions before.

Thanks.


----------



## sindridah

Ahhh ofcourse, I guess *auðveld* follows the case.

Aðveld spurning  || Nominative
Auðvelda spurningu  || Accusative
Auðveldri spurningu || Dative
Auðveldar spurningar  || Genitive

Oh god i hope that's right!


----------



## Alxmrphi

sindridah said:


> Ahhh ofcourse, I guess *auðveld* follows the case.
> 
> Aðveld spurning  || Nominative
> Auðvelda spurningu  || Accusative
> Auðveldri spurningu || Dative
> Auðveld*r*ar spurningar  || Genitive
> 
> Oh god i hope that's right!




*According to the link in post #3.


----------



## sindridah

bwahahah, I'm out of here


----------



## Alxmrphi

sindridah said:


> bwahahah, I'm out of here



 I'm sure it was a typo!


----------



## sindridah

Yeah, Let's agree on that


----------



## Silver_Biscuit

So... If I understand the visindavefur article correctly:

Mikill = uncountable nouns (a lot of butter, a lot of water = mikið smjör, mikið vatn)
Margur = countable nouns (a lot of horses, a lot of apples = margir hestar, mörg epli)

And _fólk_ is a countable noun, but also singular, so it's _margt fólk._ 

Are there any other words that are countable/teljanlegt and singular or is _fólk_ a special example?

Instead of 'Margt fólk er yngra en ég', could you say 'Margur er yngri en ég' or 'Mörg er yngri en ég', or does that not make sense?


----------



## Alxmrphi

Silver_Biscuit said:


> Instead of 'Margt fólk er yngra en ég', could you say 'Margur er yngri en ég' or 'Mörg er yngri en ég', or does that not make sense?



I think it works differently in the singular (you can usually omit the noun if it's plural, at least in what I've seen so could easily be wrong).
Wouldn't it have to be "Mörg eru" in your second example? (I'm presuming neuter plural not fem. sing. here).

If it is what you say Abi, then it makes sense as it's an exact mirror of our* much / many *in English.*
I hadn't even made that connection before, but once you mentioned it, it became clear 

Takk

*
I have many apples / horses (teljanlegt)
Do you have much butter / water? (óteljanlegt)


----------



## Silver_Biscuit

I meant it in the feminine singular sense. I was just trying to work out what possible use there was for the masculine and feminine singular forms of _margur_ there could be, because I couldn't think of any other singular, countable Icelandic nouns. I'm sure there are some though.
This actually just reminded me of a line in the folksong _Á Sprengisandi_ which confused me a lot: Hér á reiki er margur óhreinn andinn. I could not understand how _margur_ and the noun were in the singular when I knew that _margur_meant _many_, _a lot of_. Then someone pointed out the English equivalent - 'many an unclean spirit' and it all made sense. So to an extent I've just answered my own question about the uses of the masculine and feminine singuar forms of _margur_. But can you not say 'margur' to mean 'many (a man)' and 'mörg' to mean 'many (a woman)'? I don't think you can omit the noun to mean anything other than people, though. I don't know, I'm a bit confused.

Yep, many and much is a good analogy. Did you read the visindavefur article? I swear, that website has an article for everything! So informative.


----------



## Alxmrphi

Silver_Biscuit said:


> Yep, many and much is a good analogy. Did you read the visindavefur article? I swear, that website has an article for everything! So informative.



Maybe in about a year's time I'll be able to read it lol.


----------



## sindridah

Silver_Biscuit said:


> So... If I understand the visindavefur article correctly:
> 
> Mikill = uncountable nouns (a lot of butter, a lot of water = mikið smjör, mikið vatn)
> Margur = countable nouns (a lot of horses, a lot of apples = margir hestar, mörg epli)
> 
> And _fólk_ is a countable noun, but also singular, so it's _margt fólk._
> 
> Are there any other words that are countable/teljanlegt and singular or is _fólk_ a special example?
> 
> Instead of 'Margt fólk er yngra en ég', could you say 'Margur er yngri en ég' or 'Mörg er yngri en ég', or does that not make sense?



This Margur thing confuses me. I've never used it or heard of it in daily parlance, I have heard it in Hávamál ( Mál Óðins ) and in a lot of poems.

I'll have to read about that.

Mörg eru yngri en ég: It does make sense and there is nothing wrong with this sentence. You have to take a neuter words to use it. 

Mörg hús eru yngri en ég : Many houses are younger then me.

Mörg dýr eru yngri en ég: Many animals are younger then me. 


Are there any other words that are countable/teljanlegt and singular or is _fólk_ a special example?

Sorry i'm just to fried today ( as usual here on this forum ) to understand this question. 


Pollodia where are you??!!!


----------



## Silver_Biscuit

Oh, OK, so that usage is poetic and archaic. Got it, thanks. But then when _would_ you use these two columns?

*Eintala*
*Karlkyn || Kvenkyn*
margur || mörg
margan || marga
mörgum || margri
margs || margrar

Or do you just not see them used very often at all?



> Are there any other words that are countable/teljanlegt and singular or is _fólk_ a special example?
> 
> Sorry i'm just to fried today ( as usual here on this forum ) to understand this question.


 
Teljanleg nafnorð eru þau sem hægt er að telja. Til dæmis *hestur* er teljanlegt nafnorð, að því að maður getur sagt 'einn hestur, tveir hestar' og svo framvegis. *Smjör* hins vegar er óteljanlegt; maður getur ekki sagt 'tvö smjör'. 
Orðið *fólk* er teljanlegt, ekki satt? En það er líka _bara_ eintala og getur ekki verið fleirtala (sem er ástæðan fyrir því að maður segir 'margt fólk' fremur en 'mörg fólk'). Spurningin var: Eru til fleiri íslensk orð sem eru teljanleg _og_ bara eintala?


----------

