Word
Hún skrifar í dagbókina sína á kvöldin til að muna fyrir hvað hún er þakklát.
Meaning
She writes in her diary in the evenings to remember what she is grateful for.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Hún skrifar í dagbókina sína á kvöldin til að muna fyrir hvað hún er þakklát.
vera
to be
skrifa
to write
hún
she
kvöldið
the evening
Questions & Answers about Hún skrifar í dagbókina sína á kvöldin til að muna fyrir hvað hún er þakklát.
Why does dagbókina end in -ina? What is its basic form?
The basic (dictionary) form is dagbók (feminine noun) meaning diary.
- dagbók = diary (nominative singular, indefinite)
- dagbók-in = the diary (nominative singular, definite)
- dagbók-ina = the diary (accusative singular, definite)
In the sentence, dagbókina is accusative definite singular, because it is the direct object of skrifar and appears after the preposition í, which here takes the accusative (see below).
Why is the possessive after the noun: dagbókina sína instead of sína dagbók?
In Icelandic, possessive pronouns normally come after the noun they modify:
- bíllinn minn = my car
- húsið hennar = her house
- dagbókina sína = her (own) diary
Putting the possessive before the noun (sína dagbók) is possible but much more marked, and would sound poetic or emphatic. The neutral, everyday word order is noun + possessive.
What is the difference between sína and hennar for her?