Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Í verslunarmiðstöðinni kaupir hún bleikan trefil og brúnar buxur. - In the shopping mall she buys a pink scarf and brown pants.

verslunarmiðstöð = shopping centre / mall (dictionary form, nominative singular)
verslunarmiðstöðinni = in the shopping centre (dative singular, definite)

In Icelandic, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun, not a separate word like “the” in English.

Why is it í verslunarmiðstöðinni and not some other case?

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

Dative = location (where something is)
Accusative = movement into (where something is going)

In this sentence, she is already in the shopping mall while buying things, so it describes location:

Í verslunarmiðstöðinni = in the shopping centre (dative, location)

If you wanted to say “She goes into the shopping centre”, you’d use accusative:

Hún fer í verslunarmiðstöðina. (accusative singular, definite)

Why is the word order “Í verslunarmiðstöðinni kaupir hún …” and not “Í verslunarmiðstöðinni hún kaupir …”?

Icelandic is a verb-second (V2) language in main clauses:

The finite verb usually comes in second position, no matter what comes first.

Here, the first element is the prepositional phrase Í verslunarmiðstöðinni. The verb kaupir must therefore be second, and the subject hún comes after it:

1st position: Í verslunarmiðstöðinni
2nd position: kaupir (finite verb)
then: hún bleikan trefil og brúnar buxur

So “Í verslunarmiðstöðinni kaupir hún …” is the normal V2 word order.
“Í verslunarmiðstöðinni hún kaupir …” breaks that pattern and is ungrammatical in standard Icelandic.

Can I also say “Hún kaupir bleikan trefil og brúnar buxur í verslunarmiðstöðinni”? Is there a difference?

Yes, that sentence is also correct:

Hún kaupir bleikan trefil og brúnar buxur í verslunarmiðstöðinni.

The difference is mostly emphasis / information structure:

Í verslunarmiðstöðinni kaupir hún …
→ Emphasizes where this happens (“In the mall, she buys…”).
Hún kaupir … í verslunarmiðstöðinni.
→ Neutral, “She buys … in the mall”, with focus more on what she buys.

Both obey the V2 rule: in the second version, the first element is Hún, and the second is kaupir.

Why is it bleikan trefil and not bleikur trefill?

This is because of case and adjective agreement.

trefill (“scarf”) is a masculine noun:
- Nominative singular: trefill
- Accusative singular: trefil
In the sentence, the scarf is a direct object (“she buys [what?]”), so it must be in the accusative case:
- trefil (accusative singular)
The adjective bleikur (“pink”) must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case:
- Masculine, singular, accusative (strong declension) → bleikan

So the correct phrase is:

bleikan trefil = a pink scarf (masc., singular, accusative)

What case are bleikan trefil and brúnar buxur in, and why?

Both are in the accusative case, because they are direct objects of the verb kaupir (“buys”):

She buys what? → bleikan trefil og brúnar buxur.

Details:

trefil: masc. accusative singular of trefill
→ adjective: bleikan (masc. acc. sg.)
buxur: fem. accusative plural (same form as nominative plural)
→ adjective: brúnar (fem. acc. pl.)

So the pattern is:

kaupir
- accusative direct objects
  → bleikan trefil and brúnar buxur

Why is buxur plural? Can I say it in singular?

In Icelandic, as in English with “pants” or “trousers”, buxur is normally used only in the plural:

buxur = trousers/pants (feminine plural)
There is no commonly used singular form for one pant leg in everyday speech.

So:

brúnar buxur = brown pants / brown trousers
(“brúnar” agrees with a feminine plural noun in accusative)

Why is it brúnar buxur and not brúnum buxum?

Those are different cases:

brúnar buxur = accusative plural feminine
→ used as a direct object (what she buys)
brúnum buxum = dative plural feminine
→ would be used after prepositions requiring dative or in some other dative functions

In this sentence, buxur is a direct object of kaupir, so it must be accusative:

correct here: brúnar buxur
dative form brúnum buxum would not fit the grammar in this context.

Why is there no word for “a” in “bleikan trefil” or “brúnar buxur”?

Icelandic has no indefinite article like English “a” or “an”.

bleikan trefil can mean “a pink scarf” or “the pink scarf”, depending on context.
brúnar buxur can mean “brown pants” or “the brown pants”, again depending on context.

Definiteness is often made clearer by:

the definite suffix on nouns (e.g. trefilinn = the scarf),
or by context/pronouns/demonstratives.

Here the objects are simply indefinite (no definite suffix, no separate “a” word).

If verslunarmiðstöðinni has the definite ending, why don’t we see a similar ending on trefil or buxur?

We could add definite endings to the objects, but that would change the meaning to “the pink scarf” and “the brown pants”:

trefill → trefilinn (accusative singular definite: the scarf)
buxur → buxurnar (accusative plural definite: the pants)

So:

Hún kaupir bleikan trefil og brúnar buxur.
→ She buys a pink scarf and (some) brown pants.
Hún kaupir bleika trefilinn og brúnu buxurnar.
→ She buys the pink scarf and the brown pants.

In the original sentence, only the place is marked as definite (the shopping mall). The items are left indefinite.

What form of the verb is kaupir, and how does it conjugate?

kaupir is the third person singular present tense of the verb kaupa (“to buy”):

Present tense of kaupa:

ég kaupi – I buy
þú kaupir – you (sg.) buy
hann/hún/það kaupir – he/she/it buys
við kaupum – we buy
þið kaupið – you (pl.) buy
þeir/þær/þau kaupa – they buy

So in the sentence:

hún kaupir = she buys

Why does the sentence start with Í with an accent? Is that different from i?

Yes. In Icelandic, í and i are different letters:

í = long vowel, roughly like English “ee” in see.
i = short vowel, often more like the “i” in bit.

The preposition í (“in, into”) is always written with an accent (í), never plain i.
So the capital Í at the beginning is the same letter, just uppercase.

How are some of the tricky letters in verslunarmiðstöðinni pronounced? For example ö, ð, and ll?

Very roughly (without full IPA):

ö – similar to German ö or French eu in peur; rounded mid-front vowel.
ð – like the “th” in English this; a voiced dental sound.
ll – often pronounced like “tl” in Icelandic, e.g. -ll- in many words sounds like t+l.

So miðstöð is roughly like:

MIÐ – “mith” (with that soft ð as in this)
STÖÐ – “stœth” (ö like German ö, ð like this again)

You don’t need to get it perfect right away, but noticing that these letters don’t behave like English ones is important.