Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Eftir nokkrar vikur líður henni enn öruggari og hún sér enn meiri framfarir. - After a few weeks she feels even safer and sees even more progress.

With a time period and the meaning “after (a period of time)”, it takes the accusative:
- Eftir nokkrar vikur – after a few weeks
- Eftir tvo daga – after two days
- Eftir eina klukkustund – after one hour

So eftir + accusative time period = “after (x amount of time)”.

That’s why you get nokkrar vikur (accusative plural) rather than nominative nokkrar vikur in subject position or dative/genitive forms. Here it’s simply a time expression governed by eftir.

Why is it henni líður and not hún líður?

With the verb að líða in the sense of “to feel / to be doing (well/badly)”, Icelandic uses a so‑called dative subject:

Mér líður vel. – I feel good.
Honum líður illa. – He feels bad.
Henni líður enn öruggari. – She feels even more confident/safer.

So the experiencer (the person who feels something) is in the dative case (here henni, “to her”), not in the nominative (hún).

Literally, henni líður enn öruggari is closer to “to her it goes/feels even safer”, but idiomatically it just means “she feels even more confident/safer”.

Using hún líður with this meaning would be ungrammatical in standard Icelandic.

Why is the word order Eftir nokkrar vikur líður henni… and not Eftir nokkrar vikur henni líður…?

Modern Icelandic main clauses normally follow a verb-second (V2) rule:

The finite verb (líður) must appear in second position in a main declarative clause.
One “slot” before the verb can be filled by a subject, an adverbial (time, place, etc.), or some other element.

In your sentence:

Eftir nokkrar vikur – time phrase (1st position)
líður – finite verb (2nd position)
henni – dative experiencer (3rd position)
enn öruggari – the rest of the predicate

If you said Eftir nokkrar vikur henni líður…, the verb would be in third position, which breaks the V2 rule.

Acceptable alternatives that keep the verb second would be:

Henni líður enn öruggari eftir nokkrar vikur.
Henni líður eftir nokkrar vikur enn öruggari. (less natural, but still verb-second)

What is happening grammatically in enn öruggari?

Two things are going on:

Öruggari is the comparative form of the adjective öruggur (safe, secure, confident).
- öruggur – safe/confident (positive)
- öruggari – safer/more confident (comparative)
- öruggastur – safest/most confident (superlative)
Enn is an intensifier here, meaning “even” in front of a comparative:
- öruggari – safer / more confident
- enn öruggari – even safer / even more confident

So enn öruggari directly corresponds to “even more confident / even safer” in English.

What exactly does enn mean here, and why is it used twice in the sentence?

Enn has two closely related uses relevant here:

With comparatives, enn often means “even”:
- enn öruggari – even more confident
- enn meiri – even more / still more
In other contexts, enn or ennþá can mean “still, yet”:
- Hann býr enn hér. – He still lives here.
- Hún er ennþá í vinnunni. – She is still at work.

In your sentence:

enn öruggari – “even more confident/safer”
enn meiri framfarir – “even more progress / still greater progress”

So both enn’s are doing the same job: intensifying the comparative that follows them.

Why is it meiri framfarir and not fleiri framfarir?

Icelandic distinguishes between two kinds of “more” with plural nouns:

meiri (comparative of mikill – much, great):
used for amount, degree or extent (more in quantity or intensity)
fleiri (comparative of margir – many):
used for countable items (more separate units / more of them)

Framfarir is “progress, improvements” in an abstract sense. You’re talking about how much progress she sees, not counting separate, individual “progresses” as items.

So:

enn meiri framfarir = even greater/more progress (higher degree, more improvement overall)
fleiri would sound like you’re counting discrete “progress events”, which is not how the noun is usually felt.

Hence meiri framfarir is the natural choice.

Why is framfarir plural, even though “progress” in English is uncountable?

Icelandic and English handle abstract nouns differently:

English progress is typically uncountable (no plural “progresses” in normal use).
Icelandic framför (sg.) / framfarir (pl.) is often used in the plural when talking about progress or improvements in general.

So Icelandic tends to conceptualize “progress” as a set of advances / improvements, which naturally shows up as a plural:

Hún sér miklar framfarir. – She sees a lot of progress / many improvements.
Engar framfarir sjást. – No progress is seen.

The singular framför does exist but is much less common; plural framfarir is the normal way to say “progress” in this kind of sentence.

What tense are líður and sér in, and how can the present tense refer to something after Eftir nokkrar vikur?

Both líður (from að líða) and sér (from að sjá) are in the present tense.

Icelandic, like English, can use present tense with a future time expression to refer to a future situation, especially in narrative or when describing what happens as a result of something:

Á morgun fer hann til Reykjavíkur. – Tomorrow he goes / is going to Reykjavík.
Eftir þessar æfingar gengur þér mun betur. – After these exercises, you do much better.

So:

Eftir nokkrar vikur líður henni enn öruggari og hún sér enn meiri framfarir.
≈ “After a few weeks, she feels even more confident and she sees even more progress.”

You could make it explicitly future with mun:

Eftir nokkrar vikur mun henni líða enn öruggari og hún mun sjá enn meiri framfarir.

…but in many contexts, especially narrative description, the plain present is more natural.

Why doesn’t öruggari change form visibly to agree with henni (feminine)? Why not something like öruggara?

Öruggari does agree with henni in gender and number, but:

For masculine and feminine nominative singular in the comparative, the form is the same: öruggari.
The neuter nominative/accusative singular would be öruggara:
- Hann er öruggari. – He is more confident.
- Hún er öruggari. – She is more confident.
- Húsið er öruggara. – The house is safer.

In your sentence, the underlying “subject” of the adjective is henni (she), which is feminine, so the correct nominative predicative form is öruggari. You just don’t see a difference from the masculine form in this case.

What case is framfarir in, and why?

Framfarir is in the accusative plural.

The verb að sjá (to see) takes a direct object in the accusative.
The noun framför has:
- framfarir as both nominative and accusative plural form,
- with different forms in dative/genitive.

So in hún sér enn meiri framfarir:

hún – nominative subject
sér – finite verb
enn meiri framfarir – accusative object phrase (“even more progress / even greater improvements”)

Formally, this framfarir looks the same as the nominative plural, but its syntactic role is an accusative object governed by sér.