Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Hann lærir á gítar á kvöldin. - He learns to play guitar in the evenings.

If you said Hann lærir gítar, it would sound odd or very bookish, as if guitar were an academic subject. Native speakers almost always say á gítar in this context.

The word á appears twice. Does it mean the same thing in á gítar and á kvöldin?

It’s the same preposition á, but used in two different senses:

á gítar – here á is part of an idiom with instruments: læra/spila á + [instrument]. You can think of it as “on guitar,” but it really just marks the instrument.
á kvöldin – here á is used in a time expression and means “in / on (the) evenings.” Similar formulas are:
- á morgnana – in the mornings
- á daginn – in the daytime
- á næturnar – at night(s)

So it’s the same preposition, but its meaning depends on the phrase it’s in.

Why is it kvöldin and not just kvöld? What does the ending -in do here?

Kvöld means “evening; night (in the sense of evening time).”

In á kvöldin, we have:

kvöld = “evening”
-in = definite plural ending → “the evenings”

So á kvöldin literally means “on the evenings”, which in natural English is “in the evenings” / “in the evenings in general”. It implies a regular, repeated time: a habit.

Compare:

á kvöldin – in the evenings (habitually, regularly)
í kvöld – this evening / tonight (one specific evening)
á kvöldið – on the evening (a particular evening, less common)

Grammatically, kvöldin is definite plural accusative of a neuter noun kvöld:

sg: kvöld (nom/acc), kvöldi (dat), kvölds (gen), kvöldið (definite nom/acc)
pl: kvöld (nom/acc), kvöldum (dat), kvölda (gen), kvöldin (definite nom/acc)

The definite plural is what gives the “every evening / in the evenings” feel.

Does Hann lærir á gítar á kvöldin mean “He learns guitar” or “He is learning guitar”? What tense/aspect is lærir?

The verb lærir is present tense of að læra. Icelandic simple present covers both:

English present simple: He learns guitar in the evenings (habit)
English present progressive: He is learning guitar (these days) in the evenings

Context decides whether you understand it more as a general habit or as something happening over a period of time.

If you want to emphasize the ongoing process (like English “is learning”), you can use the “er að” construction:

Hann er að læra á gítar á kvöldin.
– He is learning (to play) the guitar in the evenings.

Both sentences are correct; er að læra sounds more clearly progressive/ongoing.

Why isn’t there a word like “to” (as in “to play”) in the Icelandic? Shouldn’t it be something like að læra að spila á gítar?

You can say:

Hann er að læra að spila á gítar. – He is learning to play the guitar.

That version is fully explicit:

að læra = to learn
að spila = to play
á gítar = on the guitar (i.e. the instrument)

In your sentence, lærir á gítar is a shortened idiomatic pattern. Icelandic often omits að spila when it’s obvious that you’re talking about playing an instrument:

Hann lærir á gítar. ≈ He’s learning to play (the) guitar.

So:

Long, explicit: að læra að spila á gítar
Short, idiomatic: að læra á gítar

Both are correct; the shorter one is very common in everyday speech.

Can the word order change? For example, can you say Á kvöldin lærir hann á gítar?

Yes, Icelandic word order is relatively flexible, especially with adverbials like time and place. All of these are possible:

Hann lærir á gítar á kvöldin.
– Neutral, common: subject – verb – object – time.
Á kvöldin lærir hann á gítar.
– Puts emphasis on “in the evenings” (“In the evenings, he learns guitar”).
Hann lærir á kvöldin á gítar.
– Grammatically possible, but sounds less natural; Icelandic usually prefers the instrument phrase (á gítar) closer to the verb, and time expressions at the end or at the beginning.

General rule of thumb:

Subject – verb – (object / instrument) – time is a safe, neutral order.
You can front á kvöldin to highlight it.

How is the verb að læra conjugated, and what form is lærir exactly?

Lærir is the 3rd person singular present tense of að læra (“to learn”).

Present tense of að læra:

ég læri – I learn / I am learning
þú lærir – you (sg.) learn / are learning
hann / hún / það lærir – he / she / it learns / is learning
við lærum – we learn / are learning
þið lærið – you (pl.) learn / are learning
þeir / þær / þau læra – they learn / are learning

So in Hann lærir á gítar á kvöldin, lærir agrees with hann (he).

What is the gender and basic declension of gítar, and when would you say gítarinn instead?

Gítar is a masculine noun.

Basic singular forms (the ones you’ll see most often):

nf. (nominative): gítar – “a guitar” (subject)
þf. (accusative): gítar – “a guitar” (object)
þgf. (dative): gítar – “to/for/on a guitar” (in many cases)
ef. (genitive): gítars – “of a guitar”

Definite forms (singular):

nf. gítarinn – the guitar (subject)
þf. gítarinn – the guitar (object)
þgf. gítarnum – to/for/on the guitar
ef. gítarsins – of the guitar

In your sentence we have á gítar – indefinite: “(on) guitar”.

You’d use gítarinn when you mean a specific guitar, for example:

Hann spilar á gítarinn sinn. – He plays his guitar.
Hann lærir á gítarinn. – He’s learning on the (particular) guitar.

What cases are used in á gítar and á kvöldin? Does á always take the same case?

The preposition á can take accusative or dative, depending on meaning and on fixed expressions.

In your sentence:

á gítar – gítar is (formally) accusative singular, but here you can’t see a difference because nominative, accusative, and dative singular all look the same (gítar). With instruments, the pattern á + [instrument] is treated like a fixed phrase; you just use á gítar, á píanó, etc.
á kvöldin – kvöldin is definite accusative plural. With time expressions like á morgnana, á kvöldin, á normally takes the accusative, and the definite plural gives that habitual meaning “in the mornings / in the evenings.”

In other contexts, á with dative often means location:

Bókin er á borðinu. – The book is on the table. (dative: borðinu)
Hann situr á stólnum. – He is sitting on the chair. (dative: stólnum)

So:

á + accusative: often direction or certain fixed/time expressions.
á + dative: often location (“on/at”).

But many uses (like á gítar) are best learned as set phrases.

Why is the pronoun Hann used here, and what are the other forms of “he” in Icelandic?

Hann is the nominative singular masculine pronoun, used for “he” as the subject of a sentence:

Hann lærir á gítar á kvöldin. – He learns guitar in the evenings.

Other common forms of the same pronoun:

hann – nominative (subject): he
hann – accusative (object): him (e.g. Ég sé hann – I see him)
honum – dative: to/for him (e.g. Ég gef honum bók – I give him a book)
hans – genitive: his (e.g. bókin hans – his book)

In your sentence he is the subject, so hann is the right form.

How do you pronounce Hann lærir á gítar á kvöldin? I’m especially unsure about æ, á, and ö.

An approximate pronunciation (Icelandic → rough English-like hints):

Hann – roughly “ha(n)” with a short a as in “father” but shorter; the final nn is like a clear double n.
lærir – æ sounds like English “eye”; so “LYE-rir” (with a trilled or tapped r).
á – like the “ow” in “cow” but a bit shorter and tenser.
gítar – “GEE-tar”: í like “ee” in “see”, a as in “father”, stress on the first syllable (GÍ-tar).
kvöldin – roughly “KVEUL-din”:
- kv = like “kv” in “kvetch” (k + v together)
- ö = somewhat like British English “ur” in “nurse” but shorter and without an r; a central rounded vowel
- ld – often pronounced close together, “ld” in one beat
- in – like “in” in English, but with a short i

Very rough IPA (for orientation only):
[hanː ˈlaiːrɪr au ˈciːtar au ˈkʰvœltɪn]

Key vowels:

æ ≈ [ai] like “eye”
á ≈ [au] like “ow”
ö ≈ [œ]/[ø] – a rounded “uh/er”-type sound, but fronted and without r.