Henni finnst skyr með bláberjum betra, en bróðir hennar vill hafa jarðarber.

In Icelandic, finnast is often used impersonally to express opinions or feelings like “think/feel that something is good/bad” or “like/prefer”.

• The person who feels something goes in the dative case.
  
  • henni = “to her” (dative of hún)
• The thing being judged is the subject in nominative (here: skyr með bláberjum).

So Henni finnst skyr... betra is literally:

• “To her finds skyr with blueberries better.”
  Natural English: “She finds skyr with blueberries better / She likes skyr with blueberries better.”

You cannot use hún finnst in this meaning. Hún finnst would instead mean “she is found (found by someone).”

In the impersonal construction with finnast, the thing that is being judged or evaluated is the grammatical subject and therefore stands in nominative:

• Henni finnst skyr... betra
  
  • henni = dative experiencer (“to her”)
  • skyr með bláberjum = nominative subject (“skyr with blueberries”)
  • betra = predicate adjective agreeing with skyr

So the structure is:
> [Dative person] + finnst + [nominative thing] + [adjective agreeing with thing]

That’s why skyr is in nominative.

Because of the preposition með.

• The preposition með (“with”) normally governs the dative case when it means “together with / accompanied by / served with”.
• bláber “blueberry” has the dative plural form bláberjum.

So skyr með bláberjum = “skyr with blueberries,” literally “skyr with (dative) blueberries.”

Betra is the neuter singular form of the comparative adjective betri (“better”). Adjectives in Icelandic must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.

• skyr is a neuter noun in Icelandic.
• It is singular and here in nominative.

So the adjective “better” must be:

• masculine nominative sg.: betri
• feminine nominative sg.: betri
• neuter nominative sg.: betra ← needed here

Therefore: skyr ... betra (“skyr ... better”).

Jarðarber (“strawberry”) is a neuter noun whose singular and plural nominative/accusative forms look the same:

• singular nom./acc.: jarðarber
• plural nom./acc.: jarðarber

In this sentence, it means “strawberries” in a general sense (what he wants to have with his skyr), but the form jarðarber does not change. Context tells you it’s plural/generic.

In Icelandic, the possessive pronoun (here hennar = “her”) typically follows the noun it modifies, unlike English.

• bróðir hennar = “her brother” (literally “brother of-her”)

You can sometimes put a possessive before the noun, but that is mostly with minn, þinn, sinn, vor (my, your, one’s own, our) in certain styles (e.g. minn bróðir). With hans/hennar/þeirra (“his/her/their”), the normal pattern is:

• [noun] + [possessive] → bróðir hennar

Yes, Icelandic punctuation rules typically place a comma before conjunctions that join two independent clauses, similar to English but often more consistently.

Your sentence has two clauses:

1. Henni finnst skyr með bláberjum betra
2. bróðir hennar vill hafa jarðarber

They are connected by en (“but”), so a comma is used:

• Henni finnst … betra, en bróðir hennar vill …

This is standard and expected in written Icelandic.

Yes, you could say:

• Henni líkar skyr með bláberjum betur.

The difference:

• líka
  • dative = “to like” (more basic “likes”)
• finnast
  • dative + adjective = “to find X to be [adj] / to feel that X is [adj]”

In practice:

• Henni líkar skyr með bláberjum betur.

  • “She likes skyr with blueberries better.” (focusing on liking)

• Henni finnst skyr með bláberjum betra.

  • literally “Skyr with blueberries seems better to her / she finds it better.”

They are very close in meaning here and both natural. finnst + betra sounds a bit like a value judgement/comparison (“it’s better”), while líkar betur is more directly about liking.

Icelandic distinguishes between:

• betri / betra = comparative adjective (“a better X”)
• betur = comparative adverb (“do something better”)

Here we are describing skyr (a noun), so we need an adjective that agrees with it:

• skyr (neuter noun) → needs betra (neuter adjective form)

Examples:

• Þetta skyr er betra. – “This skyr is better.” (adjective)
• Hún talar betur núna. – “She speaks better now.” (adverb)

So betra is correct here, not betur.

You can say vill jarðarber, and it will be understood, but adding hafa (“have”) is very common in this type of sentence.

• vilja on its own is “to want”:

  • Hann vill jarðarber. – “He wants strawberries.”

• vilja hafa is more specifically “wants to have (as part of something, as an accompaniment, on/with something)”:

  • Hann vill hafa jarðarber (með skyrinu / á skyrinu). – “He wants to have strawberries (with/on the skyr).”

So vill hafa jarðarber emphasizes “wants to have (as his choice of topping/accompaniment)”. It sounds very natural in this context.

Icelandic often leaves nouns indefinite (no article) when talking about things in general, preferences, or habitual choices:

• Henni finnst skyr með bláberjum betra.

  • “She likes skyr with blueberries better (in general).”

• bróðir hennar vill hafa jarðarber.

  • “Her brother wants strawberries (as his choice of fruit).”

If you used the definite form (skyrið, jarðarberin), it would suggest specific, known items:

• Henni finnst skyrið með bláberjunum betra.
  
  • “She finds the skyr with the blueberries better” (some particular skyr and blueberries).

Here we’re talking about general preference, so no article is used.

Yes, you can:

• Henni finnst skyr með bláberjum vera betra.

This is grammatically correct and means the same thing. But in spoken and everyday written Icelandic, people often omit “vera” after finnst in this type of sentence.

So:

• Henni finnst skyr með bláberjum betra. (more natural, shorter)
• Henni finnst skyr með bláberjum vera betra. (also correct, a bit more explicit/formal)

The underlying word order is still essentially Subject–Verb–Complement, but because this is an impersonal construction, the experiencer in dative is placed early:

• Henni (dative experiencer)
• finnst (verb)
• skyr með bláberjum (nominative subject)
• betra (predicative adjective)

You could rearrange slightly for emphasis, but many alternatives would sound odd or marked. For example:

• Skyr með bláberjum finnst henni betra.
  
  • Also possible; now skyr með bláberjum is fronted for emphasis.

But you would not normally say:

• *Henni finnst betra skyr með bláberjum.

Here betra would seem to be modifying some implied noun and the structure becomes confusing. The common, natural orders are:

• Henni finnst skyr með bláberjum betra.
• Skyr með bláberjum finnst henni betra.