Hugleiðsla hjálpar mér að slaka á.

to help

Breakdown of Hugleiðsla hjálpar mér að slaka á.

• mér: me
• slaka á: to relax
• hugleiðsla: the meditation

Questions & Answers about Hugleiðsla hjálpar mér að slaka á.

In the sentence Hugleiðsla hjálpar mér að slaka á, what is the grammatical role of each word?

• Hugleiðsla – noun, subject of the sentence (nominative singular, feminine).
• hjálpar – verb, 3rd person singular present of hjálpa (to help).
• mér – pronoun in the dative case, indirect object (the person being helped).
• að – infinitive marker, like English “to” before a verb.
• slaka – verb in the infinitive, part of the phrase slaka á (to relax).
• á – particle/preposition that belongs with slaka; together slaka á means to relax.

Why is it mér and not mig?

Icelandic pronouns change form depending on case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive). For ég (I), the main forms are:

• Nominative (subject): ég
• Accusative (direct object): mig
• Dative (indirect object): mér
• Genitive: mín

The verb hjálpa (to help) normally takes the dative case for the person who is helped. So you say:

• Hugleiðsla hjálpar mér … – Meditation helps *me …* (dative)

Using mig would be grammatically wrong here because that is the accusative form, and hjálpa does not take accusative for the person being helped.