ADJECTIVES
are all of the same inflectional class. Very very long ago the adjectives were inflected like nouns, and the adjectives were also divided into a-stems, i-stems and so forth, but later only the a- and ô-stem inflexion were used, the a-stem inflexion being used for the masculine and neutral gender, and the ô-stem for the feminine. The OIcel. adjectival inflexion doesn't exactly look like the nominal ones, because it has borrowed some endings from different pronouns.

The adjectival a/ô-stems are divided into pure a/ô-stems, va/vô-stems and ja/jô-stems.

The adjectives have no gender of their own, they are simply inflected into the gender (and number and case) of the noun or pronoun that they modify.

Eventhough all adjectives are inflected alike, all adjectives have two inflections. They can be either strong or weak. The weak inflexion is used when the noun is definite, and the strong is used elsewhere.

The adjectives have three grades of comparison, the positive, the comparative and the superlative. The superlative forms are inflected like the positive, but the comparative forms have only a weak inflection, which differs a little from the normal weak inflection.

· strong inflection · · weak inflection · · comparison ·