Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Stelpan teiknar augun sín mjög stór á blaðið. - The girl draws her eyes very big on the page.

Stelpan
- Dictionary form: stelpa = girl
- Gender: feminine
- Case/number: nominative singular, definite
- Role: subject of the sentence (the girl)
teiknar
- Dictionary form: teikna = to draw
- Form: 3rd person singular present indicative (draws)
- Agrees with subject Stelpan
augun
- Dictionary form: auga = eye
- Gender: neuter
- Case/number: accusative plural, definite (form is the same as nominative plural definite)
- Role: direct object (her eyes)
sín
- Dictionary form: sinn (reflexive possessive) = one’s own
- Case/number/gender: accusative plural neuter
- Role: shows that the eyes belong to the subject (her own eyes), agrees with augun
mjög
- Type: adverb
- Meaning: very
- Role: modifies stór
stór
- Dictionary form: stór = big
- Case/number/gender: accusative plural neuter (strong declension)
- Role: predicate adjective modifying augun sín (very big)
á
- Preposition: á = on / onto
- Here it takes the accusative
blaðið
- Dictionary form: blað = sheet, (piece of) paper
- Gender: neuter
- Case/number: accusative singular definite
- Role: object of the preposition á (onto the paper)

Why does stelpa appear as stelpan here?

Icelandic usually adds the definite article as an ending on the noun, instead of using a separate word like English the.

stelpa = a girl
stelpan = the girl

Here, the sentence talks about a specific girl, so the definite form is used. Grammar:

stelpa (nom. sg. indefinite)
stelpan (nom. sg. definite; -n is the definite ending for many feminine nouns)

So Stelpan = The girl.

Why is it augun and not augu?

Both forms come from auga (eye), but they differ in definiteness:

augu = eyes (indefinite plural)
augun = the eyes (definite plural)

In this sentence, the girl is drawing her eyes (a specific set of eyes, her own), so the definite form is natural:

augun sín ≈ her (own) eyes

Morphology:

auga – eye (nom./acc. sg. indeﬁnite)
augað – the eye (nom./acc. sg. definite)
augu – eyes (nom./acc. pl. indefinite)
augun – the eyes (nom./acc. pl. definite)

Why do we say augun sín instead of augun hennar for “her eyes”?

Icelandic distinguishes between:

sín / sinn / sitt = her own / his own / their own (reflexive possessive)
hennar = her (non‑reflexive; someone else’s, or at least not grammatically tied to the subject)

In this sentence, the subject is Stelpan (the girl), and the eyes belong to that same subject. Icelandic therefore requires the reflexive possessive:

Stelpan teiknar augun sín …
= The girl draws her own eyes … (the girl’s own eyes)

If you said:

Stelpan teiknar augun hennar …

this would usually be understood as:

The girl draws *her eyes …* (the eyes of some other woman/female person being talked about)

Why is the pronoun sín in that exact form and not sína, sínar, sitt, etc.?

The reflexive possessive sinn must agree with the noun it modifies in:

gender
number
case

Here, it modifies augun:

augun is neuter, plural, accusative.

The corresponding form of sinn (reflexive possessive) is:

neuter plural accusative = sín

Relevant part of the declension of sinn in the plural:

Masculine: sínir, sína, sínum, sinna
Feminine: sínar, sínar, sínum, sinna
Neuter: sín, sín, sínum, sinna

So:

augun sín = her own eyes
- augun (n. pl. acc.)
- sín (n. pl. acc.) → agreement

Why is the adjective stór in this form, and what does mjög stór mean grammatically?

stór is an adjective meaning big. Here it appears as:

stór = accusative plural neuter, strong declension
It agrees with augun sín (neuter plural accusative).

Important: in this sentence, stór is not directly in front of the noun; it is a predicative adjective (an object complement):

Stelpan teiknar augun sín mjög stór …
Literally: The girl draws her (own) eyes very big …

So stór is describing how the eyes are drawn, not what kind of eyes she naturally has.

mjög is an adverb meaning very, and it modifies the adjective:

mjög stór = very big

Grammar chain:

noun: augun (n. pl. acc.)
possessive: sín (n. pl. acc.)
adjective: stór (n. pl. acc., agrees with augun sín)
adverb: mjög (modifies stór)

That’s why you get augun sín mjög stór and not, for example, mjög stórt (that would be neuter singular).

Could we say Stelpan teiknar mjög stór augun sín á blaðið instead? How does the word order affect the meaning?

You can say:

Stelpan teiknar mjög stór augun sín á blaðið.

but the meaning shifts slightly.

Original:
- Stelpan teiknar augun sín mjög stór á blaðið.
  → The girl draws her eyes very big on the paper.
  Here mjög stór is a predicative complement: it describes the result of the drawing (she draws them so that they are very big).
Alternate:
- Stelpan teiknar mjög stór augun sín á blaðið.
  This sounds more like mjög stór is an attributive adjective: her very big eyes.
  It can be understood as: The girl draws her very big eyes on the paper – i.e. her real eyes are very big, and that’s being mentioned as a property.

Native speakers will often prefer the original order to clearly express that the drawing makes them big, rather than that her eyes (in reality) are very big.

Why is the verb teiknar in this form, and what is its dictionary form?

The dictionary (infinitive) form is:

teikna = to draw

In the sentence we have:

teiknar = 3rd person singular present indicative

It agrees with the singular subject Stelpan (the girl).

Present tense paradigm (indicative) for teikna:

ég teikna – I draw
þú teiknar – you draw
hann / hún / það teiknar – he / she / it draws
við teiknum – we draw
þið teiknið – you (pl.) draw
þeir / þær / þau teikna – they draw

So with Stelpan (she), the correct form is teiknar.

Why is it á blaðið and not á blaðinu or just á blað?

There are three things going on here:

Choice of preposition:
- á commonly means on or onto and is the normal preposition for writing/drawing on something:
  - teikna á blaðið – draw on/onto the paper
  - skrifa á töfluna – write on the board
Case after á (accusative vs dative):
- Accusative with á often implies direction or effect on the surface:
  - Hún skrifar á blaðið. – She writes (onto) the paper.
  - Hún teiknar á blaðið. – She draws (onto) the paper.
- Dative with á often implies static location:
  - Myndin er á blaðinu. – The picture is on the paper.
In Stelpan teiknar … á blaðið, the action is putting the drawing onto the paper, so accusative (blaðið) is used.
Definiteness:
- blað – a sheet / (a piece of) paper (indefinite)
- blaðið – the sheet / the paper (definite)
  The English translation given is usually on the paper, so the definite blaðið is appropriate.

So:

á blaðið = onto the paper / on the paper (with an action directed to it)

Which words are in the accusative case in this sentence, and why?

Accusative forms in the sentence:

augun
- From auga (eye), neuter plural definite, accusative.
- Reason: direct object of teiknar (what is drawn? – augun sín).
sín
- Reflexive possessive agreeing with augun.
- Form: neuter plural accusative.
- Reason: it must match the case/gender/number of the noun it modifies (augun).
stór
- Adjective agreeing with augun sín.
- Form: neuter plural accusative (predicative adjective / object complement).
- Reason: describes augun sín, so it shares their case/gender/number.
blaðið
- From blað (sheet, paper), neuter singular definite accusative.
- Reason: object of the preposition á, which in this usage (drawing/writing onto) takes the accusative.

So the accusative is used for:

the direct object and its agreeing words (augun sín mjög stór)
the object of á in this context (blaðið)