Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Hann er sonur minn.

So sonur minn is the normal, neutral word order.
You can say minn sonur, but that word order adds emphasis on minn (“he is *my son* (not someone else’s)”) rather than just stating a fact.

Is Hann er minn sonur also correct, and does it mean the same thing?

Yes, Hann er minn sonur is grammatically correct and means essentially the same: He is my son.

The difference is nuance:

Hann er sonur minn. – neutral, most common phrasing.
Hann er minn sonur. – emphasizes minn, as in He is *my son (not someone else’s) or *I’m the one who is his father/mother.

In casual speech, you will most often hear sonur minn.

Why is there no word for a or the in Hann er sonur minn?

Icelandic handles articles differently from English:

There is no separate word for “a/an”. So sonur can mean a son when context suggests it.
The definite article “the” is usually attached to the end of the noun as a suffix, not as a separate word:

sonur = son / a son
sonurinn = the son

In Hann er sonur minn, sonur is indefinite and minn (my) already makes the reference specific, so there is no extra “the”. The phrase corresponds to English He is *my son, not He is **the my son*.

What does each word in Hann er sonur minn correspond to in English?

Rough mapping:

Hann – he (3rd person singular masculine pronoun)
er – is (3rd person singular present of to be, vera)
sonur – son (noun, masculine, nominative singular)
minn – my (possessive pronoun agreeing with sonur)

So literally: He is son my (with Icelandic word order), which we render as He is my son.

Why is it sonur and not just son?

Sonur is the nominative singular form of the noun son in Icelandic. Many masculine nouns in nominative singular end in -ur:

sonur – son
vinur – friend
hestur – horse

In other cases (like accusative, dative, genitive), the ending of sonur changes, and the -ur often disappears:

Nominative: sonur – (subject) “A son is here.”
Accusative: son – “I see a son.” (Ég sé son.)
Dative: syni – “I give to a son.” (Ég gef syni.)
Genitive: sonar – “of a son.” (hús sonarins – the house of the son)

In Hann er sonur minn, sonur is in the nominative, so it keeps the -ur.

Why is sonur in the nominative case here?

The verb er (is), a form of vera (to be), links two things that are grammatically equal: a subject and a predicate noun/adjective. With this verb, both sides usually appear in the nominative case.

Hann (nominative) er sonur minn (nominative).
Hún er kennari. – She is a teacher. (hún and kennari are nominative.)
Þetta er húsið. – This is the house. (Þetta and húsið are nominative.)

So sonur is nominative because it describes who hann is.

Why is the possessive minn, and not something like mína, mínum, or mín?

The possessive pronoun minn must agree with the noun in:

gender (masculine, feminine, neuter)
number (singular/plural)
case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive)

Here the noun is:

sonur – masculine, singular, nominative.

The matching form of minn for masculine nominative singular is minn:

Masculine nom. sg.: minn sonur / sonur minn – my son
Feminine nom. sg.: mín dóttir / dóttir mín – my daughter
Neuter nom. sg.: mitt barn / barn mitt – my child

Forms like mínum, mína, mín are used in other cases or genders, for example:

Ég elska son minn. – I love my son. (accusative: son, minn still masculine acc. sg.)
Ég tala við son minn. – I talk to my son. (accusative)
Ég gef syni mínum bók. – I give my son a book. (dative: syni mínum)

How is Hann er sonur minn pronounced?

Approximate IPA and description:

Hann – [haːn]
- Initial h like English h in hat.
- a somewhat like a in father, often long here.
- Double nn usually pronounced as a long n.
er – [ɛr]
- e like e in bed.
- Rolled or tapped r (tongue on the alveolar ridge).
sonur – [ˈsɔːnʏr] (roughly)
- Stress on the first syllable (so-).
- o like British o in got, often lengthened.
- u here is [ʏ], similar to German ü in mütter; there’s also a final r.
minn – [mɪnː]
- i like i in bit.
- Double nn again long n.

Overall rhythm: HANN er SO-nur MINN, with the main stress on Hann and sonur if speaking neutrally.

Where does the stress fall in the sentence?

In Icelandic, stress is almost always on the first syllable of each content word:

Hann – stressed (one syllable)
er – usually unstressed (short linking verb)
sonur – stress on so-: SO-nur
minn – one syllable, stressed, but often less prominent than sonur in this sentence

So the natural pattern is something like: HANN er SOnur MINN, with Hann and sonur the most prominent in a neutral statement.

Can you ever drop Hann and just say Er sonur minn?

Normally, no. Icelandic is not a “pro‑drop” language like Spanish or Italian, where you can regularly omit subject pronouns.

Hann er sonur minn. – correct, complete.
Er sonur minn. – usually ungrammatical as a full sentence.

You might see or hear Er sonur minn in very restricted, elliptical contexts (e.g., after a question, as a fragment: “Who is he?” – “Er sonur minn.”), but in standard, full sentences you keep the subject pronoun: Hann er …

How would this sentence change if I said “He loves my son” instead of “He is my son”?

Change the verb and the case of sonur:

Hann elskar son minn. – He loves my son.

Differences:

Verb: elskar (loves) instead of er (is).
Case: elska takes an accusative object, so sonur → son (accusative).
Possessive: minn also agrees in accusative masculine singular, but its form happens to be the same as nominative: minn.

So:

Hann er sonur minn. – nominative (he = son).
Hann elskar son minn. – accusative (he loves [my son]).

Is sonur grammatically masculine, and does that matter for other words around it?

Yes, sonur is a masculine noun. This affects:

The form of the possessive:
- sonur minn (masc.) vs
- dóttir mín (fem.) vs
- barn mitt (neut.)
Any adjectives that might agree with it:
- góður sonur minn – my good son
  - góður (masc. nom. sg.) agrees with sonur.

Gender is fixed for each noun and you generally learn it along with the word, often by noticing its nominative ending and dictionary entry.