Nefið hans er oft kalt á veturna.

His nose is often cold in the winters.

Breakdown of Nefið hans er oft kalt á veturna.

• vera: to be
• kaldur: cold
• á: in
• oft: often

Questions & Answers about Nefið hans er oft kalt á veturna.

Why is it Nefið hans and not Hans nef?

In Icelandic, 3rd‑person possessive pronouns (hans = his, hennar = her, þeirra = their) usually come after the noun:

• hestur hans – his horse
• húsið hennar – her house
• Nefið hans – his nose

So:

• Nefið hans is the normal, neutral order.
• Hans nef is grammatical, but it sounds marked:
  • more formal, written, or poetic, or
  • with strong emphasis on his (as opposed to someone else’s):
    Hans nef er stærra en mitt. – HIS nose is bigger than mine.

For ordinary speech, Nefið hans is the standard phrasing.

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What does the ending -ið in Nefið mean?

The ending -ið is the definite article (“the”), attached to a neuter singular noun:

• nef – (a) nose
• nef-ið – the nose

Icelandic usually adds the article as a suffix:

• hús → húsið – the house (neuter)
• stóll → stóllinn – the chair (masc.)
• bók → bókin – the book (fem.)

So Nefið hans literally looks like “the nose his”, but it means .