Hundurinn eltir skugga sinn á götunni.

The dog follows its shadow on the street.

Breakdown of Hundurinn eltir skugga sinn á götunni.

• hundurinn: the dog
• á: on
• gatan: the street
• skugginn: the shadow
• elta: to follow
• sinn: its

Questions & Answers about Hundurinn eltir skugga sinn á götunni.

What does the suffix -inn on hundurinn indicate?

The suffix -inn is the definite article attached to the noun. In Icelandic, instead of placing the before a noun (as in English), you add -inn (for masculine nouns) to make it definite.

• hundur = “a dog”
• hundurinn = “the dog”

What grammatical case, number and gender is hundurinn, and why is it in that case?

• Case: Nominative (because it’s the subject of the sentence)
• Number: Singular
• Gender: Masculine
  In Icelandic, the subject of a sentence appears in the nominative case.

What is the verb eltir in English, and how is it conjugated here?

eltir is the 3rd person singular present tense of að elta, which means “to chase”. Conjugation in the present looks like this:

• ég elta (I chase)
• þú eltir (you chase)
• hann/hún/það eltir (he/she/it chases)

Why is skugga used instead of skuggi, and what case is it?

The verb elta takes a direct object in the accusative case. The base (nominative) form of shadow is skuggi, and its accusative singular form is skugga. So here skugga = “(its) shadow” as the thing being chased.

What is sinn, and why do we use it instead of hans or hennar?

sinn is the reflexive possessive pronoun. It refers back to the subject of the clause.

• It agrees in case, number and gender with the noun it modifies (here skugga, which is masculine singular accusative, so the form is sinn).
• You cannot use hans (“his”) because hans would refer to someone else’s shadow, not the dog’s own shadow.

Why is götunni in the dative case?

The preposition á when indicating a static location (where something happens) governs the dative case.

• Base noun: gata (street)
• Dative singular definite: götunni
  So á götunni = “on the street.”

How would meaning change if we said á götuna instead of á götunni?

• á götunni (dative) = static location → “on the street”
• á götuna (accusative) = motion towards → “onto the street”

Why is eltir placed as the second word in the sentence?

Icelandic main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in the second position. Here the elements are:
1) Hundurinn (subject)
2) eltir (finite verb)
3) everything else (object + adverbial)