Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Hún situr á gólfinu og bak hennar er ekki lengur þreytt. - She sits on the floor and her back is no longer tired.

Hún – personal pronoun, 3rd person singular feminine, “she” (subject of the first clause).
situr – verb, 3rd person singular present of sitja, “sits / is sitting”.
á – preposition, usually “on / at”, here: “on”.
gólfinu – noun gólf (floor), dative singular definite, “the floor” → “on the floor”.
og – conjunction, “and”.
bak – noun, “back” (as in body part), neuter singular, subject of the second clause.
hennar – possessive pronoun, genitive singular of hún, “her” → “her back”.
er – verb vera, 3rd person singular present, “is”.
ekki – negation, “not”.
lengur – adverb, “any longer / anymore”.
þreytt – adjective þreyttur, here neuter singular, “tired”.

So literally: “She sits on the-floor and back her is not longer tired.”

Why is it á gólfinu and not á gólfið or just á gólf?

Several things are going on:

Location vs. movement (dative vs. accusative)
- With á, location usually takes the dative, and movement onto something takes the accusative.
- á gólfinu (dative) = “on the floor” (she is there, stative).
- á gólfið (accusative) = “onto the floor” (movement to that place).
  Your sentence describes a position, not motion, so dative is required.
Why the ending -inu?
- Base noun: gólf (neuter).
- Dative singular of neuter definite: gólfinu = “the floor”.
- So á gólfinu literally: “on the floor” (with the).
Why not drop the article?
- You can say á gólfi (“on floor”) in some contexts, but á gólfinu (“on the floor”) is more natural in a concrete, specific scene like this.
- English has to say “the floor”; Icelandic often matches that here with the definite form.

So á gólfinu is the correct, natural choice for “(she) is sitting on the floor.”

What exactly does gólfinu tell me grammatically?

Gólfinu encodes three pieces of information:

Lexical noun:
- Base form: gólf = “floor” (neuter).
Number:
- It’s singular.
Case and definiteness:
- Ending -inu = dative singular definite for a neuter noun.
- So it means “on the floor” (not just “on a floor”).

Case choice (dative) is triggered by á when it describes location. The ending also carries the “the” that English writes as a separate word.

Why is it bak hennar and not hennar bak for “her back”?

Icelandic prefers head-first order in this kind of possessive phrase:

bak hennar
- bak = the head noun (“back”)
- hennar = the possessor (“her”), in the genitive
- Pattern: [noun] + [possessor in genitive]

This is the most neutral written form for “her back”.

Hennar bak is not natural modern Icelandic. With possessive pronouns, the normal options are:

Noun + genitive pronoun:
- bak hennar = her back (more formal/literary, or when just talking about the body part itself).
Definite noun + prepositional phrase:
- bakið á henni = literally “the back on her” → “her back” (very common and idiomatic).

So the sentence uses the noun + genitive pronoun pattern: bak hennar.

Could you say bakið hennar instead of bak hennar?

You can see bakið hennar in real usage, but there are nuances:

bak hennar
- A bit more neutral; focuses on the body part “her back” as a general thing.
bakið hennar
- Definite form bakið (“the back”) + “her” → “her (particular) back”.
- Feels slightly more specific/emphatic, but in practice speakers often choose a different structure:

More common in everyday speech would be:

bakið á henni er ekki lengur þreytt
Literally “the back on her is no longer tired” = “her back is no longer tired.”

So:

bak hennar is fine and grammatical.
bakið hennar is possible but stylistically less common than bakið á henni in many contexts.

Why is it hennar and not the reflexive sín / sitt for “her own back”?

The reflexive sinn/sína/sitt must refer back to the grammatical subject of the same clause.

In the second clause:

Subject: bak hennar (“her back”)
Verb: er (“is”)
Predicate: ekki lengur þreytt

Because bak hennar is the subject there, a reflexive form would grammatically refer back to bak, not to hún. So you cannot say:

✗ bak sitt er ekki lengur þreytt

That would be like saying “its own back is no longer tired” (reflexive to bak), which doesn’t make sense.

To refer to hún across the clause boundary, you must use the non‑reflexive possessive pronoun:

bak hennar = “her back” (referring to hún from the first clause).

If you wanted to use a reflexive pronoun correctly, you’d keep hún as the subject in that clause, for example:

Hún situr á gólfinu og er ekki lengur þreytt í bakinu.
(“She is sitting on the floor and is no longer tired in her back.”)

Here hún is also the subject of er, so a reflexive possessive (through í bakinu referring to her) is naturally understood.

Why is the adjective þreytt in that form and not þreyttur?

Adjectives in Icelandic agree with the grammatical gender, number, and case of the noun they describe.

Noun: bak = neuter singular.
So the predicate adjective must be neuter singular nominative.

Forms of þreyttur (“tired”):

Masculine nominative singular: þreyttur
Feminine nominative singular: þreytt
Neuter nominative singular: þreytt

Because bak is neuter:

bak hennar er … þreytt ✅
*bak hennar er … þreyttur ❌ (masculine)
*bak hennar er … þreytt (thinking feminine) – here it looks the same, but grammatically we interpret it as neuter because of the noun.

So the ending matches bak, not hún.

Icelandic has no “is sitting” form. Why is situr used for “is sitting”?

Icelandic generally does not have a separate progressive tense like English “is sitting” vs “sits”.

Hún situr á gólfinu is understood from context as
- either “She sits on the floor” (habitually)
- or “She is sitting on the floor” (right now).

If you really want to stress that the action is ongoing right now, you can use a periphrastic form, but it’s less common:

Hún er að sitja á gólfinu.
Literally “She is to sit on the floor.” (≈ “She is sitting on the floor.”)

In normal narrative or description, simple present (situr) is enough for the English progressive meaning. Context (and sometimes adverbs like núna “now”) provide the “right now” nuance.

How does ekki lengur work, and could I move lengur somewhere else?

Ekki lengur together means “no longer / not anymore.”

ekki = “not”
lengur = “any longer / anymore” (in negative contexts)

Word order in your sentence:

bak hennar er ekki lengur þreytt
Literally: “her back is not any‑longer tired.”

You have some flexibility:

bak hennar er ekki lengur þreytt – neutral, very natural.
bak hennar er lengur ekki þreytt – odd; this order is possible but sounds marked/weird in most contexts.
bak hennar er ekki þreytt lengur – also common and natural, slightly different rhythm:
- ekki lengur þreytt: focuses on the cessation of tiredness.
- ekki þreytt lengur: often feels like you’re contradicting a previous state (“It’s not tired anymore”).

In everyday speech, both:

… er ekki lengur þreytt
… er ekki þreytt lengur

are acceptable and idiomatic. The version in your sentence is perfectly good.

Is this exactly how a native speaker would normally say it, or is there a more idiomatic alternative?

Your sentence is grammatical and understandable as is. However, many native speakers might more naturally phrase it with “tired in the back” instead of making bak hennar the subject:

Hún situr á gólfinu og er ekki lengur þreytt í bakinu.
Literally: “She sits on the floor and is no longer tired in the back.”

or, keeping “her back” explicit:

Hún situr á gólfinu og bakið á henni er ekki lengur þreytt.
“She is sitting on the floor and her back is no longer tired.”

So:

Hún situr á gólfinu og bak hennar er ekki lengur þreytt. – correct, slightly more formal/bookish.
Hún situr á gólfinu og er ekki lengur þreytt í bakinu. – very natural conversational style.

How do you pronounce some of the tricky Icelandic words here?

Approximate pronunciations (in simple English-like spelling):

Hún – “hoon” (long ú, lips rounded).
situr – roughly “SIH-tur” (short i, u like in “put”).
á – “ow” (as in “cow”, but usually a bit tenser).
gólfinu – roughly “GOHL-vi-nuh”
- ó = long “oh”
- lf is pronounced together, like in English “golf” but with a clearer l.
bak – “bahk” (long a, like “baa” but shorter and tenser).
hennar – “HEN-nar” (both e like “e” in “bed”).
ekki – “EH-ki” with a strong kh sound in some dialects (between e and i).
lengur – “LENG-ur” (like “leng-ur”; eu‑like final vowel).
þreytt – roughly “THREYT”
- þ = unvoiced “th” (as in “thing”)
- ey = like “ei” in “eight”
- final tt is pronounced with a little glottal/tap quality in native speech.

These are approximations, but they should help orient you to the main sounds in the sentence.