Hún er mjög glöð í dag.

She is very happy today.

Breakdown of Hún er mjög glöð í dag.

• vera: to be
• hún: she
• mjög: very
• í dag: today
• glaður: happy

Questions & Answers about Hún er mjög glöð í dag.

What does each word in Hún er mjög glöð í dag correspond to in English?

Roughly, word‑for‑word:

• Hún – she (3rd person singular feminine pronoun)
• er – is (present tense, verb vera = to be)
• mjög – very
• glöð – happy, glad (feminine singular form of the adjective glaður)
• í dag – today (literally in day, but it’s a fixed expression meaning today)

So the whole sentence corresponds to She is very happy today.

Why is it glöð and not glaður?

Icelandic adjectives change form to agree with the noun (or pronoun) they describe in:

• gender (masculine / feminine / neuter)
• number (singular / plural)
• case (nominative / accusative / dative / genitive)

The base dictionary form of this adjective is:

• glaður – masculine, nominative, singular, indefinite form.

But here it describes hún (she), which is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative (it’s the subject of the sentence)

The form of glaður that matches feminine singular nominative is:

• glöð

So:

• Hann er mjög glaður í dag. – He is very happy today. (masculine)
• Hún er mjög glöð í dag. – She is very happy today. (feminine)

What grammatical role does hún play in this sentence?

Hún is:

• a personal pronoun (3rd person singular, feminine)
• the subject of the verb er

In grammar terms:

• Case: nominative (subjects of finite verbs are normally nominative in Icelandic)
• Person: 3rd
• Number: singular
• Gender: feminine

The adjective glöð agrees with hún in gender, number, and case, because it is a predicate adjective describing the subject.

What form of the verb vera is er, and why is it used?

Er is the present tense form of the verb vera (to be) used for:

• ég er – I am
• hann er – he is
• hún er – she is
• það er – it is

So er here is just “am/is” in the present tense. Icelandic verbs are conjugated for person and number; you don’t use the infinitive vera directly in a finite sentence like this.

What does mjög mean exactly, and where does it go in the sentence?

Mjög means very, highly, extremely (a neutral intensifier).

• It is an adverb.
• It usually appears right before the adjective it modifies.

So:

• Hún er glöð. – She is happy.
• Hún er mjög glöð. – She is very happy.

You would not normally say:

• ✗ Hún er glöð mjög í dag.
• ✗ Hún er í dag mjög glöð. (possible but marked / unusual in everyday speech)

The natural neutral word order keeps mjög immediately before glöð.

What does í dag literally mean, and why is dag in that form?

Í dag is a fixed time expression meaning today.

• í – in
• dag – a form of dagur (day)

Literally it looks like in day, but as a phrase it just means today, not “in the day”.

Grammatically:

• í takes the accusative case for time expressions.
• The accusative singular of dagur is dag (without the -ur ending).

So:

• dagur (nom.) – day (as a subject)
• dag (acc.) – day (as an object / in some prepositional phrases)
• í dag – today (fixed accusative phrase)

Is the word order Hún er mjög glöð í dag fixed, or can I move things around?

The natural, neutral order is:

1. Subject: Hún
2. Verb (2nd position): er
3. Predicate (adverb + adjective): mjög glöð
4. Time expression: í dag

So Hún er mjög glöð í dag is the most typical order.

Other orders are possible but sound marked or poetic, for example:

• Í dag er hún mjög glöð. – Okay, focuses on today.
• Hún er í dag mjög glöð. – Grammatically fine but sounds quite formal/emphatic.
• ✗ Hún mjög er glöð í dag. – ungrammatical in normal Icelandic.

Remember that in statements the finite verb tends to appear in the second position of the clause.

How would I say “He is very happy today” or “They are very happy today”?

Using the same pattern but changing the pronoun and adjective agreement:

• Hann er mjög glaður í dag.

  • hann – he (masculine)
  • glaður – masculine singular nominative form of the adjective

• Þær eru mjög glaðar í dag.

  • þær – they (feminine plural, about women)
  • glaðar – feminine plural nominative form

• Þeir eru mjög glaðir í dag.

  • þeir – they (masculine plural, mixed or all-male group)
  • glaðir – masculine plural nominative form

• Þau eru mjög glöð í dag.

  • þau – they (neuter plural, often mixed group)
  • glöð – neuter plural nominative form (same spelling as feminine singular nominative)

So glöð in your original sentence is feminine singular, but glöð can also be neuter plural in other contexts.

Could I leave out í dag and just say Hún er mjög glöð?

Yes.

• Hún er mjög glöð. – She is very happy.

This is a perfectly complete sentence. Adding í dag simply specifies when she is very happy. Without it, you are talking about her current state in general or at this moment, without emphasising “today” as a time frame.

Is there any difference between using glöð, ánægð, or hamingjusöm?

All three can be translated as happy, but they have different flavours:

• glöð – glad, cheerful, in a good mood; often about temporary mood.

  • Hún er mjög glöð í dag. – She’s very cheerful today.

• ánægð – pleased, satisfied, content.

  • Hún er mjög ánægð í dag. – She’s very satisfied/pleased today (e.g., with some result).

• hamingjusöm – happy in a deeper, more lasting way; often about life situation.

  • Hún er mjög hamingjusöm í dag. – She’s very happy (in life) today; can imply a more profound happiness.

So glöð is the most neutral for “in a good mood, cheerful”.

How do I pronounce Hún er mjög glöð í dag?

Approximate pronunciation (in a rough English-friendly way):

• Hún – [huːn] – like “hoon”, with a long oo.
• er – [ɛr] – like “air”, but shorter, with a tapped r.

• mjög – [mjœːɣ]

  • mj – like my but very short y, or m
    • palatal y
  • ö – rounded vowel, like French eu in peur
  • final g is a soft fricative [ɣ], a voiced sound in the back of the mouth.

• glöð – [glœːð]

  • g – hard g as in “go”
  • lö – same ö sound, long
  • final ð – soft th as in “this”, not “thing”.
• í – [iː] – like “ee” in “see”, long.
• dag – [taːɣ] or [daːɣ] depending on dialect
  • d often sounds a bit like a soft t/d
  • a – like a in “father”, long
  • final g again as soft [ɣ].

Spoken naturally, the sentence is fairly smooth: Hún er mjög glöð í dag.

Why does the adjective glöð come after er, not before like in English (“happy is she”)?

Icelandic uses the same basic Subject–Verb–Complement order as English in simple statements:

• Subject: Hún
• Verb: er
• Complement (predicate adjective): mjög glöð
• Time: í dag

Saying something like:

• ✗ Mjög glöð er hún í dag.

is possible only in very specific contexts (poetic, or with strong emphasis on mjög glöð). In normal speech you keep:

• Hún er mjög glöð í dag.

So the adjective typically follows the verb vera, just like in English (She is happy).

Is this the “strong” or “weak” form of the adjective, and why isn’t there a definite ending like “the”?

Glöð here is a strong adjective form.

Icelandic adjectives have two main patterns:

• Strong declension – used:
  • when there is no definite article (no hún er sú glada etc.)
  • when the noun/pronoun is indefinite or “bare”
• Weak declension – used:
  • with a definite article or other clear definiteness markers
  • with possessives in many cases

In Hún er mjög glöð í dag:

• glöð describes hún directly.
• There is no definite article attached to the adjective.
• The pronoun hún itself carries person/definiteness, so the adjective stays in the strong form.

You would only see weak forms with structures like:

• sú glada konan – the happy woman (definite, weak declension)

But in predicate position after er, with a personal pronoun subject, you normally use the strong adjective form, as here.