Hún sér miklar framfarir þegar hún æfir reglulega.

In this sentence sér is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb að sjá (to see).

• Infinitive: að sjá – to see
• 3rd person singular present: hann / hún / það sér – he / she / it sees

There is also a reflexive pronoun sig with the dative form sér (to/for oneself), but that is not what you have here. You can tell it’s the verb because:

• It comes right after the subject hún, in verb position.
• It has an object after it: miklar framfarir – she sees (what?) big improvements.

The noun framfarir is usually used in plural in Icelandic when talking about progress / improvements in general.

• framför – a single advance / step forward (exists but is not very common in everyday speech)
• framfarir – progress, improvements, typically used in the plural, even when English uses an uncountable noun (progress)

So:

• miklar framfarir ≈ a lot of progress / big improvements

This is similar to how some English nouns are grammatically plural but often translated as a singular idea (for example the police are…).

In Icelandic, adjectives must agree with the noun in:

• Gender
• Number
• Case

Here:

• Noun: framfarir
  
  • Gender: feminine
  • Number: plural
  • Case: accusative (it’s the direct object of sér)

The adjective is mikill (much, big, great). Its feminine accusative plural form is miklar.

So we get:

• mikill (base form)
• miklar framfarir – feminine, accusative, plural agreement

You could not say mikill framfarir or mikla framfarir here; the form must match framfarir exactly in gender, number, and case.

Grammatically it is accusative plural.

Reasons:

1. It is the direct object of sér (to see takes its object in the accusative).
2. Feminine strong nouns often have the same form in nominative and accusative plural, so framfarir looks the same in both.
3. We can still see the case from the adjective: miklar shows feminine accusative plural, so framfarir must also be accusative plural.

So the phrase miklar framfarir is accusative plural, functioning as the object of sér.

Yes. Icelandic present tense is used very similarly to English present for:

• General truths / habitual actions
  
  • Hún sér miklar framfarir þegar hún æfir reglulega.
    – She sees a lot of progress when she practises regularly.

It can also be understood as a more general rule, almost like:

• Whenever she practises regularly, she sees a lot of progress.

If you wanted a clearly future meaning, you could still use present in Icelandic (as English often does too), or add more context. The bare present tense covers both current, repeated, and general situations comfortably.

Þegar is a subordinating conjunction that usually means “when” in a time sense.

In this sentence it expresses a repeated, habitual situation. In English we can translate it in several ways depending on nuance:

• when she practises regularly
• whenever she practises regularly

It does not mean “if” in the conditional sense; that would be ef:

• Ef hún æfir reglulega, sér hún miklar framfarir.
  – If she practises regularly, she sees a lot of progress.

Your sentence with þegar focuses on time (whenever that situation happens), not on a hypothetical condition.

In Icelandic, subject pronouns are normally not dropped in finite clauses. Each clause tends to express its own subject explicitly.

• Main clause: Hún sér miklar framfarir – She sees a lot of progress
• Subordinate clause: þegar hún æfir reglulega – when she practises regularly

Leaving out the second hún:

• ✗ *Hún sér miklar framfarir þegar æfir reglulega.

sounds incomplete or wrong, because æfir then has no subject.

So, unlike some languages (Spanish, Italian, etc.), Icelandic generally needs the pronoun hún in both clauses unless context clearly allows an omission in certain coordinated structures (and even there, it’s much less common than in pro‑drop languages).

The infinitive is að æfa – to practise, to exercise.

In the present tense, -a verbs with a vowel in the stem often take -i(r) endings in the 2nd and 3rd person singular. The pattern for æfa (present indicative) is:

• ég æfi – I practise
• þú æfir – you (sg.) practise
• hann / hún / það æfir – he / she / it practises
• við æfum – we practise
• þið æfið – you (pl.) practise
• þeir / þær / þau æfa – they practise

So hún æfir is the 3rd person singular present, and æfar would be incorrect.

The neutral word order in Icelandic puts manner adverbs like reglulega after the verb (if there is no object).

So:

• hún æfir reglulega – she practises regularly ✅ (natural)

Putting it before the verb:

• ✗ hún reglulega æfir

is not standard and sounds marked or wrong in normal prose. Icelandic word order is fairly flexible for emphasis, but for learners it’s best to follow:

• Subject + Verb + (Object) + Adverbs of manner/time/place

In a subordinate clause with þegar you keep the same relative order after the conjunction:

• þegar hún æfir reglulega – when she practises regularly

Yes, reglulega is an adverb meaning “regularly”.

It is formed from the adjective reglulegur (regular):

• Adjective: reglulegur – regular (masc. nom. sg.)
• Adverb: reglulega – regularly

A common pattern in Icelandic is:

• adjective ending in -legur → adverb ending in -lega

For example:

• venjulegur – usual → venjulega – usually
• náttúrulegur – natural → náttúrulega – naturally

So reglulega is the adverbial form of reglulegur.

You can say:

• Hún sér miklar framfarir þegar hún æfir oft.
  – She sees a lot of progress when she practises often.

But there is a nuance:

• reglulega – focuses on regularity / consistency (e.g. every day, three times a week).
• oft – focuses on frequency (often), but not necessarily with a fixed schedule.

So reglulega implies a steady, systematic practice routine, while oft just says she does it many times, possibly irregularly.

For normal, neutral emphasis, this word order is the standard and best for learners:

• Main clause: Hún sér miklar framfarir
  
  • Subject – Verb – Object
• Subordinate clause: þegar hún æfir reglulega
  
  • Conjunction – Subject – Verb – Adverb

Some movement is possible for focus (especially with adverbs), but options like:

• ✗ Hún miklar framfarir sér þegar hún æfir reglulega.
• ✗ Hún sér framfarir miklar þegar hún æfir reglulega.

sound wrong or very marked. Adjectives almost always come before the noun they modify, and verbs stay early in the clause.

So for clear, idiomatic Icelandic, keep exactly:

• Hún sér miklar framfarir þegar hún æfir reglulega.