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Questions & Answers about Hún málar húsið.
What does Hún mean and what is its role in the sentence?
Hún is the 3rd-person singular feminine pronoun, meaning she. Here it functions as the subject performing the action.
What is málar, and what tense and person does it represent?
Málar is the present-tense form of the verb mála (to paint). The ending -ar marks it as 3rd person singular present (“she paints”).
Why isn’t there an að before málar?
In Icelandic, að is used before the infinitive (e.g. að mála = “to paint”). Here málar is a finite, conjugated verb in the present tense, so no að is needed.
What does húsið mean, and why does it have the suffix -ið?
Húsið is the definite form of hús (house), so it means the house. Neuter nouns form the definite singular by adding -ið.
What case is húsið in? Why does it look like the nominative?
It’s in the accusative case (direct object of málar). Neuter singular nouns have identical forms in the nominative and accusative, so húsið serves both roles.