Hún vill leika sér í garðinum.

She wants to play in the garden.

Breakdown of Hún vill leika sér í garðinum.

• vilja: to want
• hún: she
• í: in
• garðurinn: the garden
• leika sér: to play

Questions & Answers about Hún vill leika sér í garðinum.

Why is it leika sér and not just leika?

In Icelandic, að leika sér is a set phrase meaning “to play, to amuse oneself” (what children or animals typically do).

• að leika without sér usually means:
  
  • to act (in a play/film):
    
    • Hún leikur í bíómynd. – She acts in a movie.
  • to play (an instrument):
    
    • Hann leikur á píanó. – He plays the piano.

So in Hún vill leika sér í garðinum, the sér tells you we are talking about playful activity for fun, not acting or playing an instrument.

What exactly does sér mean here, and why is it in that form?

Sér is the dative singular of the reflexive pronoun (roughly “oneself”).

Icelandic reflexive pronoun (3rd person):

• accusative: sig
• dative: sér

With að leika sér, the verb takes the reflexive pronoun in the dative, so the pattern is:

• leika sér – literally “play to/for oneself” → play, amuse oneself

You normally don’t translate sér separately into English; it’s just part of the idiomatic verb leika sér.

What is the basic form of garðinum, and why does it look different?

The base (dictionary) form is garður – “garden, yard” (masculine noun).

The form garðinum is:

• singular
• dative case
• definite (“the garden”)

Declension (singular) of garður:

• Nominative: garður – a garden
• Accusative: garð
• Dative: garði
• Genitive: garðs

With the definite article attached as an ending:

• Nominative definite: garðurinn – the garden
• Accusative definite: garðinn
• Dative definite: garðinum ← used in the sentence
• Genitive definite: garðsins

Because of the preposition í (“in”) and the meaning “in the garden” (location), we need dative definite, so garðinum.

Why does í take the dative case here? Isn’t it sometimes accusative?

The preposition í (“in, into”) can take dative or accusative depending on the meaning:

• Dative → location, being somewhere (static):

  • Hún er í garðinum. – She is in the garden.
  • Hún vill leika sér í garðinum. – She wants to play in the garden.

• Accusative → movement into, direction:

  • Hún fer í garðinn. – She goes into the garden.

In Hún vill leika sér í garðinum, she is playing in a place (no motion into it is expressed), so í takes dative, giving garðinum.

What verb is vill, and how is it conjugated?

Vill is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb að vilja – “to want”.

Present tense of vilja:

• ég vil – I want
• þú vilt – you (sg.) want
• hann / hún / það vill – he / she / it wants
• við viljum – we want
• þið viljið – you (pl.) want
• þeir / þær / þau vilja – they want

So in the sentence:

• Hún vill leika sér í garðinum.
  
  • Hún – she
  • vill – wants
  • leika sér – to play (amuse herself)
  • í garðinum – in the garden.

Can this sentence mean she is playing now, or only that she wants to play?

As written, Hún vill leika sér í garðinum means “She wants to play in the garden.”
It expresses a wish/intention, not an action happening right now.

To say she is currently playing in the garden, you would typically use vera að + infinitive:

• Hún er að leika sér í garðinum. – She is playing in the garden.

Compare:

• Hún vill leika sér í garðinum. – She wants to play in the garden.
• Hún er að leika sér í garðinum. – She is playing in the garden.

Can hún ever mean “it”, or is it always “she”?

Hún is:

• “she” for a female person
• also the 3rd person singular pronoun for grammatically feminine nouns (which often translates as “it” in English).

Examples:

• Hún vill leika sér í garðinum. – She wants to play in the garden. (female person)
• Bókin er á borðinu. Hún er rauð. – The book is on the table. It is red. (book = bók, a feminine noun, so Icelandic uses hún).

In your sentence, since it refers to a person, hún is naturally understood as “she”.

Could I drop hún and just say Vill leika sér í garðinum?

Normally, no. Icelandic is not a “pronoun-dropping” language like Spanish or Italian.
The subject pronoun is usually required:

• Hún vill leika sér í garðinum. – correct, normal
• Vill leika sér í garðinum. – sounds incomplete / unnatural unless the subject is very clear from immediate context (and even then, it is usually kept).

So you should keep hún here.

What is the difference between leika sér and spila for “to play”?

Both can translate as “to play”, but they are used in different contexts:

• leika sér – to play for fun, to amuse oneself

  • kids or animals playing, informal physical or imaginative play:
    
    • Krakkarnir leika sér úti. – The kids are playing outside.

• spila – to play a game or music

  • spila fótbolta – to play football
  • spila tölvuleiki – to play video games
  • spila á gítar – to play the guitar

In Hún vill leika sér í garðinum, the idea is a child (or similar) just playing around in the garden, not necessarily playing an organized game.

Is the word order fixed, or could I say Hún vill í garðinum leika sér?

The normal, neutral word order is:

• Hún vill leika sér í garðinum.

Icelandic main clauses obey verb-second (V2): the finite verb (vill) generally appears in second position:

1. Subject (or some other element): Hún
2. Finite verb: vill
3. Rest of the clause: leika sér í garðinum

You can move things around for emphasis or style, e.g.:

• Í garðinum vill hún leika sér. – In the garden she wants to play. (emphasis on place)

But Hún vill í garðinum leika sér is unusual and sounds awkward; it breaks the most natural grouping of the verb phrase vill leika sér and the prepositional phrase í garðinum.

How do you pronounce garðinum, especially the ð?

Approximate pronunciation: [ˈkarðɪnʏm].

Key points:

• g → like English g in go, but before a it’s often a bit harder/“k-like”; many learners hear it close to [k], especially in careful speech.
• ar → like ar in car (but shorter).
• ð → a voiced “th” sound, like the th in English this, brother.
• i → short [ɪ], like i in sit.
• num → nʏm, with u like the rounded vowel in Icelandic hugur, somewhat between English u in put and German ü.

You don’t pronounce any separate “-ur” at the end; it’s just -num.

How would I say “They want to play in the garden” based on this sentence?

You mainly need to change the subject pronoun and the verb form:

If “they” is a mixed or unknown gender group (most common neutral choice):

• Þau vilja leika sér í garðinum. – They want to play in the garden.

Breakdown:

• Þau – they (neuter plural, mixed/unspecified)
• vilja – 3rd person plural of vilja
• leika sér – to play (amuse themselves)
• í garðinum – in the garden

Other plural pronouns:

• Þeir vilja leika sér í garðinum. – They (all male or masc.-dominating group) want to play in the garden.
• Þær vilja leika sér í garðinum. – They (all female) want to play in the garden.