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Questions & Answers about Hún syngur fallega.
What case is Hún, and why not Hana?
Hún is the nominative (subject) form of the feminine pronoun—She. Hana is the accusative or dative form, used when “her” is an object or after certain prepositions. Since Hún here is doing the singing (the subject), you must use the nominative Hún.
Why does the verb end in -ur (i.e. syngur)?
Icelandic verbs attach -ur in the 3rd person singular present tense for most conjugation classes. Syngja (“to sing”) is a strong verb whose present stem is syng-, so you add -ur to get syngur = “he/she sings.”
How do you get the adverb fallega from the adjective fallegur?
Adverbs from adjectives ending in -ur, -ir or -ar are formed by dropping that ending and adding -lega.
• fallegur → remove -ur → falleg- → add -lega → fallega (“beautifully”).
Does fallega change for gender, number or case like adjectives?
No. Once you form an adverb (here fallega), it is indeclinable. Adverbs in Icelandic do not agree with nouns; they remain the same in every context.
Can you place the adverb before the verb, like in English?
The neutral Icelandic order is Subject–Verb–Adverb: Hún syngur fallega. You can front the adverb for extra emphasis—Fallega syngur hún—but that inversion is stylistic and not the unmarked order.
How would you ask “Does she sing beautifully?”
Yes/no questions use verb–subject inversion in Icelandic. So you say:
Syngur hún fallega?
(literally “Sings she beautifully?”)
How do you say “She sang beautifully”?
The past (preterite) of syngja is söng for 3 sg. So:
Hún söng fallega.
Could fallega modify the noun lag (“song”)?
No. fallega is an adverb and only describes verbs. To say “a beautiful song,” use the adjective form: fallegt lag. If you want “She sings the song beautifully,” you could say:
Hún syngur lagið fallega.
How do you pronounce syngur?
Roughly s as in English sit
• y like German ü [ʏ]
• ng as in sing
• u as in full
• r a tapped or trilled r.