# Icelandic: Hvað ertu gamall? Ég er sautján ára gamall.



## Alxmrphi

Hæ,

Question.. 
From what I've learnt about cases, I know that "nominative" is like the subject of a sentence, "accusative" is the direct object, "dative" is the "to someone/something" type and genitive is the possessive, and I am also used to learning about prepositions in Icelandic that don't seem to make sense when they use certain cases like "hjá (+ dat)" to be "at/by" but that's not important.

Hvað ertu gamall? - How old are you?
Ég er sautján ára gamall. - I am 17

My first question is, in Icelandic answer, is "gamall" right, or does it need to be declined?

Second of all... I did a declension search on "ár (year)", and the plural came up as the same, and the only one that was "ára", was the genitive plural, I really can't understand why it would be the genitive plural?

You see, I know that "orða" is "words", and I did a search for that as well in the same website and it said that it was also genitive plural, which surprised me because I thought that normally, without being declined it would be nominative, like the dictionary form.

I know it seems weird to disagree with something that seems so right, but I just get the feeling I am missing something..

orð - word
ordða - words

ár - year
ára - years

Can someone tell me if that is right (not declined/ekki beyging) ?
Because the website says nominative plural, the words are exactly the same as the singular. It's only in the "Eignarfall Fleirtala" (Plural Genitive) that "orða/ára" exist.

And I'm a bit stumped at the moment with that.


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## Magb

Alex_Murphy said:


> Hvað ertu gamall? - How old are you?
> Ég er sautján ára gamall. - I am 17
> 
> My first question is, in Icelandic answer, is "gamall" right, or does it need to be declined?



It's correct the way it is, assuming that you're male. If you (or whoever is answering) were a girl you'd have to use _gömul_ instead. Same thing goes for the question (i.e., if the person being asked is female).



Alex_Murphy said:


> Second of all... I did a declension search on "ár (year)", and the plural came up as the same, and the only one that was "ára", was the genitive plural, I really can't understand why it would be the genitive plural?



That's just the way it is. You could think of it as being for sort of the same reason that you'd sometimes say "seventeen years *of* age" in English.



Alex_Murphy said:


> orð - word
> ordða - words
> 
> ár - year
> ára - years
> 
> Can someone tell me if that is right (not declined/ekki beyging) ?
> Because the website says nominative plural, the words are exactly the same as the singular. It's only in the "Eignarfall Fleirtala" (Plural Genitive) that "orða/ára" exist.
> 
> And I'm a bit stumped at the moment with that.



Yes, neuter nouns are identical in the singular and plural in the nominative form. So _orð_ can mean either "word" or "words". _orðs_ means word's and _orða_ means words'.


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## Alxmrphi

Ah ok, 

So I am... with age, you use genitive plural, ok.
I always saw orðabok you see, to mean dictionary.
Which I suppose makes sense now, "words' book", it does make sense, I just thought of it as "words book".

Ok slowly it's starting to click, good example with the "of age" thing as well, that really helped!!


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## Alxmrphi

While we're talking about age.. can I just ask:
If I want to say I'm 21, and I'm male... I say...

*Ég er tuttugu og einn ára gamall.*

But if I was female, and the same age.. it'd be...

*Ég er tuttugu og ein ára gömul.*

Right? The version of "one" changes, or doesn't it?


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## butra

Ég er tuttugu og eins árs gamall   (male)
Ég er tuttugu og eins árs gömul   (female)


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## Alxmrphi

So in the first one is...

Ég er sautján ára gamall..... correct? 

You used "eins árs" in the "tuttugu" examples, maybe it's wrong, but the Icelandic Online Dictionary has "fjórtán ára gamall"... arghh!!

Or is it just because it's "tuttugu og..." that it becomes "eins árs"
Can you explain why it is "eins árs", I thought I understood, but not anymore!!

So are these right:

Ég er fjórtán ára gamall.
Ég er sautján ára gamall.
Ég er tuttugu og eins árs gamall.

?


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## butra

Alex_Murphy said:


> So in the first one is...
> 
> 
> So are these right:
> 
> Ég er fjórtán ára gamall.
> Ég er sautján ára gamall.
> Ég er tuttugu og eins árs gamall.
> 
> ?


 
all correct


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## Magb

The reason, if I'm not mistaken, is that the number 21 is considered to be singular in this context. The number 1 in Icelandic has both a singular and a plural form, and when you use the singular form the noun it's modifying also has to be singular, hence _árs_. Basically, where in English you would say "twenty-one year*s*", in Icelandic you say "twenty-one year" instead -- just like how you would say "one year".


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## Alxmrphi

So so helpful, thank you...

But naturally this leads us to the next question...
If it's not "one" and singular, but it is plural, but can be masculine / feminine / neuter...

What happens in this case?

Ég er *þrír* ára gamall. - I am three years old (male).
Ég er *þrjár* ára gömul. - I am three years old (female).

Ég er tuttugu og *þrír* ára gamall. - I am twenty three years old (male).
Ég er tuttugu og *þrjár* ára gömul. - I am twenty three years old (female).

Are these right?


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## butra

Alex_Murphy said:


> Ég er *þrír* ára gamall. - I am three years old (male).
> Ég er *þrjár* ára gömul. - I am three years old (female).
> 
> Ég er tuttugu og *þrír* ára gamall. - I am twenty three years old (male).
> Ég er tuttugu og *þrjár* ára gömul. - I am twenty three years old (female).
> 
> Are these right?


 

Ég er *þriggja* ára gamall. - I am three years old (male).
Ég er *þriggja* ára gömul. - I am three years old (female).

Ég er tuttugu og *þriggja* ára gamall. - I am twenty three years old (male).
Ég er tuttugu og *þriggja* ára gömul. - I am twenty three years old (female).


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## Alxmrphi

Takk!

The tricky part is, I was wondering is there a number between 1-4 that's not 1 or 3 where a female uses the feminine form, you see, I can't tell if what form it is as the genitive plural of þrír, for masculine, feminine and neuter is "þriggja"..

Let me check if it's the same for 2 and 4..
Ahh I guess it doesn't matter... the genitive for all genders of "tveir" and "fjórir", are all the same word..

So I guess I should have no problem responding to "Hvað ertu gamall?" 
No matter who I might be pretending to be!


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## butra

Alex_Murphy said:


> Takk!
> 
> you see, I can't tell if what form it is as the genitive plural of þrír, for masculine, feminine and neuter is "þriggja"..


 
þriggja is neuter because ára is neuter!


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## Alxmrphi

Ah true, that makes sense!
En orðið "þrigga" er líka eignarfall (for) karlkyn og kvenkyn, (right?)
(I hope that made at least a tiny bit of sense!!)

But yeah, my question was whether the gender used depended on the person who is talking (male or female) or the noun that it is connected to (ár), but I see it's the noun.

Takk kærlega!


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## butra

En orðið "þrigga" er líka eignarfall (for) karlkyn og kvenkyn, (right?)

right.


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## JógaUgla

Bump. I found this thread and realized I made a mistake in the little biography that I'm writing. I had stated _41 *ára*_, and it appears that _41 *árs*_ would be right.

The following two sentences contain numbers. Is the grammar now correct?

_Maðurinn minn er 46 ára gamall og ég er 41 árs gömul. Við búum hjá þremur páfagaukum í litlu gulu húsi._


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## butra

All correct.


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## sindridah

Niiiiiiice!


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## JógaUgla

_Flott! Takk fyrir, butra og sindridah_. I feel so happy and excited whenever I manage to write Icelandic correctly!

The _Teach Yourself Icelandic_ book indicates that "_hann er 46 og ég er 41_" sounds more natural in conversation. The same is true for English. So that will likely be my preferred phrasing in the future, now that I've gained a better understanding of the declension patterns of the more formal wording.


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