Hún kaupir íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku.

she

Breakdown of Hún kaupir íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku.

• kaupa: to buy
• í: in
• hver: every

Questions & Answers about Hún kaupir íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku.

What does Hún mean exactly, and can it ever mean “it”?

Hún is the 3rd person singular feminine pronoun in the nominative case. In most learner examples it’s translated as “she”.

However, Icelandic pronouns also agree with grammatical gender, not just natural gender. So:

• Hún = she (for a woman or girl)
• Hún can also mean it when referring to a feminine noun, e.g. bók (book, feminine):
  
  • Bókin er ný. Hún er góð. – The book is new. It is good.

In this sentence, with no previous feminine noun mentioned, Hún is understood as “she”.

What form of the verb is kaupir, and what is the basic (dictionary) form?

The basic (dictionary) form of the verb is kaupa – “to buy”.

Kaupir is the present tense, 3rd person singular form. A small part of the present tense paradigm is:

• ég kaupi – I buy
• þú kaupir – you (sing.) buy
• hann / hún / það kaupir – he / she / it buys
• við kaupum – we buy
• þið kaupið – you (pl.) buy
• þeir / þær / þau kaupa – they buy

So with Hún, Hún kaupir means “She buys” (or “She is buying”, depending on context).

Why is it íslenskt tímarit and not íslensk tímarit or íslenskur tímarit?