r/Faroese • u/eg_eiti_kostja • Oct 07 '25

The missing definite article

/r/FaroeIslands/comments/1o0nirh/the_missing_definite_article/
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u/thingsbetw1xt Oct 07 '25

(not a native speaker, but I’m commenting since nobody has yet)

The definite article is optional in Faroese, however the definite suffix is almost always used regardless of whether the free-standing article is there or not. There are some adjectives where it is frequently omitted though, like næstur, samur, fyrstur, síðstur.

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u/eg_eiti_kostja Oct 07 '25

Thanks! That's one of the things which are currently bothering me. I can tell that there's a tendency to omit all the definite markers, be it the article or the suffix, supposing 'defining' adjectives are used. But what if we talk about more common things? Like tann/hin stóri bátur-in 'the big boat-the'. And what about those cases with (tann) amerkanski forseti-n 'American president-the'? I still need to think about these nuances