Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Stelpan lærir á gítar. - The girl is learning to play the guitar.

stelpa – a girl (indefinite)
- Example: Þetta er stelpa. – This is a girl.
stelpan – the girl (definite)
- Example: Stelpan lærir á gítar. – The girl is learning (to play) guitar.

Same person, same gender, same case (nominative); only definiteness changes.

What grammatical role does Stelpan have in this sentence?

Stelpan is:

the subject of the sentence
in the nominative singular (subject) case
feminine in gender

So grammatically: nominative, singular, definite, feminine noun used as subject.

What exactly does lærir mean, and how is it formed?

lærir is the present tense, 3rd person singular of the verb að læra (to learn / to study).

Relevant forms:

Infinitive: að læra – to learn
1st person singular: ég læri – I learn / am learning
2nd person singular: þú lærir – you learn / are learning
3rd person singular: hann / hún / það lærir – he / she / it learns / is learning

In Stelpan lærir á gítar, the subject is stelpan (she), so we use lærir.

In English we say “is learning”. Why is there no “is” in Stelpan lærir á gítar?

Icelandic usually does not use a separate verb for “be” to make a present progressive (is learning, are learning).

Stelpan lærir á gítar can mean:
- The girl learns guitar. (habit)
- The girl is learning guitar. (right now / in general)

So simple present in Icelandic often covers both English simple present and present continuous.

How would I say “The girl is learning guitar right now” more explicitly?

Icelandic can make a progressive-like form with “er að + infinitive”:

Stelpan er að læra á gítar.
Literally: The girl is at to learn on guitar.

This strongly suggests an ongoing action right now, similar to English is learning (right now).

Why do we say lærir á gítar and not just lærir gítar?

With musical instruments, Icelandic normally uses the verb + á construction:

að læra á gítar – to learn (to play) guitar
að spila á gítar – to play guitar

You generally cannot drop á here.
*Stelpan lærir gítar sounds wrong / unidiomatic to native speakers.

So á is part of the idiom “læra á + instrument” = learn to play + instrument.

Does á here literally mean “on”? How should I think of á gítar?

Literally, á often means on, but in this idiom it’s better to think:

á gítar ≈ on guitar / the guitar as an instrument

So:

lærir á gítar ≈ learns to play guitar
spilar á gítar ≈ plays guitar

It is an idiomatic construction; translating á as plain on is too literal.

What case is gítar in, and why doesn’t it change form?

Here gítar is in the accusative singular after á in this idiom.

For this noun:

Nominative singular: gítar
Accusative singular: gítar

Since nominative and accusative look the same, you don’t see the case change in the form; you know it’s accusative because of the preposition + idiom (á gítar with an instrument).

How would I say “The girl is learning the guitar” instead of just “guitar”?

You make gítar definite with a suffix, just like stelpan:

gítar – (a) guitar
gítarinn – the guitar

So:

Stelpan lærir á gítar. – The girl is learning guitar (in general).
Stelpan lærir á gítarinn. – The girl is learning the guitar (a specific guitar).

In practice, when talking about the skill, people normally use the indefinite: á gítar.

Is the word order in Stelpan lærir á gítar the same as in English?

Yes, here it is the same basic Subject–Verb–Object/Prepositional phrase order:

Subject: Stelpan – the girl
Verb: lærir – learns / is learning
Prepositional phrase: á gítar – on guitar

You would not say *Stelpan á gítar lærir in normal neutral speech. That sounds wrong; Icelandic prefers the same S–V–(rest) order in simple statements as English.

How do you pronounce Stelpan lærir á gítar?

Approximate pronunciation (stressed syllables in caps):

Stelpan – STEL-pan
- e like e in get, a like a in father but short
lærir – LAI-rir
- æ like English eye; both r are tapped/trilled
á – like ow in cow, but shorter and clearer
gítar – GEE-tar
- í like ee in see, stress on gí, clear t, rolled/trilled r

Whole sentence roughly: STEL-pan LAI-rir ow GEE-tar (with all main stress on the first syllable of Stelpan, then secondary stresses).

How would the sentence look in the plural, e.g. “The girls learn / are learning guitar”?

You need plural for both noun and verb:

Stelpan lærir á gítar. – The girl learns / is learning guitar.
Stelpurnar læra á gítar. – The girls learn / are learning guitar.

Changes:

Stelpan (the girl, singular) → Stelpurnar (the girls, plural)
lærir (3rd person singular) → læra (3rd person plural)

Could I say Stelpan spilar á gítar instead? What’s the difference from lærir á gítar?

Yes, and it changes the meaning slightly:

Stelpan lærir á gítar. – The girl is learning guitar (acquiring the skill).
Stelpan spilar á gítar. – The girl plays guitar (she can already play / is playing).

Both use á gítar after the verb, but:

læra á = learn to play
spila á = play (an instrument)