Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Hún kaupir íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku. - She buys an Icelandic magazine every week.

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?

This is about adjective agreement. The adjective íslenskur (“Icelandic”) must agree with the noun tímarit (“magazine”) in gender, number, and case.

tímarit is neuter, singular, accusative here (it’s the direct object).
The strong declension of íslenskur in neuter singular nominative/accusative is íslenskt.

So:

íslenskur – masculine singular (e.g. íslenskur maður – an Icelandic man)
íslensk – feminine singular OR neuter plural (e.g. íslensk kona, íslensk tímarit “Icelandic magazines”)
íslenskt – neuter singular (e.g. íslenskt tímarit – an Icelandic magazine)

Because tímarit is neuter singular, the correct form here is íslenskt tímarit.

Why doesn’t tímarit change its form in this sentence? Isn’t it in the accusative?

Yes, tímarit is in the accusative case as the direct object of kaupir.

However, neuter nouns in Icelandic often have the same form in the nominative and accusative. That’s the case here:

Nominative singular: tímarit
Accusative singular: tímarit

So it is accusative in this sentence; it just doesn’t look different from the nominative form.

Why is there no word for “a” before tímarit?

Icelandic has no indefinite article (no separate word for “a/an”).

Indefiniteness is usually understood from the context: a bare noun like tímarit can mean “a magazine” or sometimes just “magazine” in a general sense.

So íslenskt tímarit is naturally interpreted as “an Icelandic magazine” in English, even though there is no word for “a” in the Icelandic sentence.

What case is tímarit in, and why is that case used?

In this sentence, tímarit is in the accusative singular.

The verb kaupa (“to buy”) is a transitive verb and takes a direct object in the accusative case. The thing being bought is íslenskt tímarit, so that noun phrase is accusative.

We don’t see any change in form because, as mentioned, neuter nominative and accusative singular are identical for this noun.

What does í hverri viku literally mean, and why do we use í here?

Í hverri viku is literally “in each week”, but the idiomatic translation is “every week”.

The preposition í (“in”) commonly takes the dative case when it means location or time. Here it expresses a recurring time frame: in each week. So the noun vika (“week”) appears in the dative singular: viku.

The whole phrase í hverri viku is a standard way to say “every week” in Icelandic.

Why is it hverri viku and not something like hverja viku?

Two things are going on: case and adjective/pronoun agreement.

The preposition í with this meaning (“in” + time) takes the dative.
- vika (week, feminine) → dative singular: viku.
The word hver (“each, every”) must agree in gender, number, and case with vika.
- Feminine, dative singular form of hver is hverri.

So:

nominative: hver vika – each/every week
dative (after í): í hverri viku – in each week → every week

Hverja viku would be accusative, and that doesn’t fit after í in this meaning.

Can í hverri viku go in other places in the sentence, or must it be at the end?

It can be placed in different positions, as long as the finite verb stays in the second position (Icelandic is a V2 language). All of these are possible:

Hún kaupir íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku.
Í hverri viku kaupir hún íslenskt tímarit.
Í hverri viku kaupir hún íslenskt tímarit. (same as above, just different emphasis when spoken)
Hún kaupir í hverri viku íslenskt tímarit. (less common but possible, with a slightly different rhythm)

The most neutral everyday word order is usually with í hverri viku at the end or at the very beginning.

Does kaupir mean “she buys” or “she is buying”? How do you express the progressive “is buying” in Icelandic?

The simple present tense in Icelandic can cover both habitual and immediate actions, depending on context. So Hún kaupir íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku naturally means “She buys an Icelandic magazine every week” (habitual action).

To express a progressive action happening right now, Icelandic usually uses vera að + infinitive:

Hún er að kaupa íslenskt tímarit. – She is (in the process of) buying an Icelandic magazine.

So:

Hún kaupir… – She buys (habitually, generally).
Hún er að kaupa… – She is buying (right now).

How would the sentence change if I wanted to say “She buys the Icelandic magazine every week”?

To say “the Icelandic magazine”, you need to make the noun definite. That’s done with a definite article suffix on the noun and a weak form of the adjective:

íslenskt tímarit – an Icelandic magazine (indefinite, strong adjective)
íslenska tímaritið – the Icelandic magazine (definite, weak adjective + definite noun)

So the sentence would be:

Hún kaupir íslenska tímaritið í hverri viku.
– She buys the Icelandic magazine every week.

How would this sentence look with a masculine or plural subject?

Keeping the rest of the sentence the same:

Masculine singular (he):
- Hann kaupir íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku.
  (hann = he; verb form kaupir stays the same)
Plural (they):
- Þeir kaupa íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku. – they (masc.) buy…
- Þær kaupa íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku. – they (fem.) buy…
- Þau kaupa íslenskt tímarit í hverri viku. – they (neut./mixed) buy…

Notice that the verb changes to kaupa in the 3rd person plural, but the object phrase íslenskt tímarit and í hverri viku remain the same.

How would I say “She buys Icelandic magazines every week” (plural)?

You need the plural of tímarit and adjust the adjective accordingly.

tímarit (magazine) – neuter
- singular nom/acc: tímarit
- plural nom/acc: tímarit
The adjective íslenskur in neuter plural nominative/accusative is íslensk (no final -t).

So:

Hún kaupir íslensk tímarit í hverri viku.
– She buys Icelandic magazines every week.

How is this sentence pronounced, and where is the stress?

Approximate pronunciation (in a broad, learner‑friendly transcription):

Hún – [huːn]
kaupir – [ˈkʰœiːpɪr] (the au sounds roughly like öy in German+English)
íslenskt – [ˈistlɛnskt] (the consonant cluster -nskt is tight; final t is devoiced and may be lightly released)
tímarit – [ˈtʰiːmaˌrɪt] (primary stress on tí, secondary on rit)
í – [iː]
hverri – [ˈkʰvɛrɪ]
viku – [ˈvɪːkʏ]

When spoken naturally, íslenskt tímarit may sound like one cluster, and the t at the end of íslenskt can blend with the t at the beginning of tímarit.