Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég þýði stundum stuttar setningar fyrir vini mína. - I sometimes translate short sentences for my friends.

Ég þýði stundum stuttar setningar…
– describes a habitual action: something you do from time to time, as a general fact.
Ég er að þýða stuttar setningar…
– describes an action that is in progress right now: I am (currently) translating short sentences…

So for “I sometimes translate short sentences for my friends” (a regular habit), Ég þýði… is the natural choice.

Where can the adverb stundum go in the sentence? Is the position fixed?

The adverb stundum (sometimes) is fairly flexible, but some positions sound more natural than others.

Your sentence:

Ég þýði stundum stuttar setningar fyrir vini mína. ✔️

Other acceptable positions:

Ég stundum þýði stuttar setningar fyrir vini mína. (possible, but a bit marked/unusual)
Stundum þýði ég stuttar setningar fyrir vini mína. – “Sometimes I translate short sentences for my friends.” (very natural, with focus on sometimes)

Less natural or awkward:

Ég þýði stuttar stundum setningar fyrir vini mína. ✖️ (splitting adjective and noun like this is wrong)

In general, common adverbs like stundum often go:

right after the verb: þýði stundum, or
at the beginning of the sentence: Stundum þýði ég…

Why is it stuttar setningar and not stutt setningar or stuttir setningar?

Because the adjective must agree with the noun in:

gender
number
case
and strong/weak form

Here:

setning = sentence
– gender: feminine
– number: plural
– case: accusative (it’s the direct object of þýði)

The plural accusative feminine form of stuttur (short) in the strong declension is:

stuttar

So you get:

stuttar setningar = short sentences (fem. pl. acc.)

Forms like:

stutt setningar – wrong (that’s neuter, not feminine)
stuttir setningar – wrong (that’s masculine, not feminine)

are ungrammatical here because they don’t match the gender and case of setningar.

What case is stuttar setningar in, and how do we know?

Stuttar setningar is in the accusative plural.

How we know:

Grammatically:
- setningar is the direct object of the verb þýði (what do I translate? → short sentences).
- Direct objects of normal transitive verbs are usually in the accusative in Icelandic.
Form of the words:
- Noun setning:
  - nom. pl.: setningar
  - acc. pl.: setningar
    (they look the same in plural)
- Adjective stuttur (strong, feminine plural):
  - nom. pl. fem.: stuttar
  - acc. pl. fem.: stuttar

So the combination stuttar setningar can be nominative or accusative feminine plural in form; here the function (direct object) tells us it’s accusative.

What does fyrir do in this sentence, and which case does it take here?

Fyrir is a preposition. Here it means for (the benefit of):

fyrir vini mína = for my friends

In this benefit meaning, fyrir takes the accusative case.

That’s why we have:

vini (acc. pl. of vinur)
mína (acc. pl. masc. of minn, my)

So: fyrir + acc. → fyrir vini mína.

Why do we say vini mína and not vinir mínir?

Because after fyrir (in this meaning) we need the accusative, not the nominative.

vinir mínir
– nominative plural masculine: my friends as the subject of a sentence.
– e.g. Vinir mínir búa í Reykjavík. – My friends live in Reykjavík.
vini mína
– accusative plural masculine: my friends as an object, governed by the preposition fyrir.
– e.g. Ég þýði… fyrir vini mína. – I translate… for my friends.

So here, fyrir forces the phrase into the accusative: vini mína.

Can I also say fyrir mína vini instead of fyrir vini mína?

Yes, fyrir mína vini is grammatically correct as well.

Difference in feeling:

fyrir vini mína – the neutral, most common order: noun + possessor
fyrir mína vini – puts a bit more emphasis on mína (my friends, as opposed to someone else’s)

Both have masculine accusative plural in both words, just different word order:

vini mína: noun first
mína vini: possessive first (slightly more emphatic)

What are the forms of vinur and minn that appear in vini mína?

The phrase vini mína is:

vini
– from vinur (friend), masculine
– accusative plural: vini (friends – as an object)
mína
– from minn (my), masculine
– accusative plural masculine: mína

So both words are:

masculine
plural
accusative

Agreed in gender, number, and case, as they must be.

Why don’t we use mínum here? When would mínum vinum be used instead?

Mínum is the dative plural masculine form of minn.

You would use mínum vinum when the noun phrase is in the dative plural, for example:

after fyrir when it means “before (in front of)” or “before (in time)” and takes dative in that sense
after other prepositions that take dative
as an indirect object in dative constructions

Example with dative:

Ég tala við mína vini. – I talk to my friends. (accusative)
Ég tala við vinina fyrir mínum vinum. – I speak to the friends in front of my friends. (here fyrir = “in front of”, taking dative → mínum vinum)

In your sentence, fyrir has the “for (the benefit of)” meaning and takes the accusative, so we need vini mína, not mínum vinum.

Is the subject pronoun Ég necessary? Could you just say Þýði stundum stuttar setningar…?

In normal Icelandic, you must include the subject pronoun:

Ég þýði stundum stuttar setningar… ✔️
Þýði stundum stuttar setningar… ✖️ (unnatural / incorrect in standard language)

Unlike languages such as Spanish or Italian, Icelandic is not a “null-subject” language in everyday usage. You almost always say Ég, þú, hann, etc., even though the verb form already indicates the person.

How do you say “for my friend” (singular) instead of “for my friends”?

Singular:

vinur = a friend
vin = acc. sg. of vinur
minn = my (masc. nom. sg.)
minn (same form) is also acc. sg. masculine

So:

fyrir vin minn = for my friend (one friend)

Plural (your original sentence):

fyrir vini mína = for my friends (more than one)

What is the past tense of þýði if I want to say “I sometimes translated short sentences for my friends”?

The verb að þýða in the past tense (1st person singular) is þýddi.

So your sentence in the past would be:

Ég þýddi stundum stuttar setningar fyrir vini mína.
– I sometimes translated short sentences for my friends.

Conjugation (past indicative):

ég þýddi
þú þýddir
hann / hún / það þýddi
við þýddum
þið þýdduð
þeir / þær / þau þýddu