Learn Hardcore Icelandic: Ég les fréttir eftir morgunmat.

In normal Icelandic sentences you usually do include the subject pronoun (ég, þú, hann, etc.). Icelandic verb endings show person/number, but not strongly enough that speakers routinely drop pronouns the way Spanish does. You can omit ég in some contexts (very informal notes, coordinated clauses, answers where it’s obvious), but the safe default for learners is to include it.

What form is les and how does it relate to the infinitive?

les is the present tense, 1st person singular form of the verb að lesa (to read).
Conjugation (present) looks like:

ég les
þú lest
hann/hún/það les
við lesum
þið lesið
þeir/þær/þau lesa

So the sentence is using the simple present.

Does the present tense here mean right now, or a habitual routine?

It can mean either, depending on context. Icelandic uses the simple present much like English:

Habitual: Ég les fréttir eftir morgunmat. (a routine)
Immediate/ongoing (with context): Ég les fréttir (núna). (right now)

Adding an adverb like oft, alltaf, núna, í dag can make the intended meaning clearer.

Why is fréttir plural—why not singular?

In Icelandic, fréttir is very commonly used as a plural noun meaning news in the general sense, similar to English where news behaves like a mass noun but refers to multiple items. The singular frétt usually means a single piece of news or a news item (often closer to a story or a report).

Why is there no word for the or some before fréttir?

Icelandic often omits an article when you mean something general:

Ég les fréttir. = I read news (in general)

If you mean specific news, you’d typically add the definite ending:

Ég les fréttirnar. = I read the news (the specific news, e.g., today’s news)

You can also specify with something like nýjustu fréttir (the latest news).

What case is fréttir in, and how can I tell?

Here fréttir is the direct object of les, so it is in the accusative. For many feminine plural nouns (including frétt), the nominative plural and accusative plural look the same, so you can’t always “see” the case just from the ending. You identify it by function: object → accusative (for this verb).

(Definite forms show it more clearly: fréttirnar can still be nominative/accusative plural, but context tells you which.)

Why does eftir take morgunmat (not morgunmatur)?

Because eftir (after) governs the accusative in this time-meaning use.
The base form is morgunmatur (breakfast), but the accusative singular is morgunmat (dropping -ur is common for masculine nouns in the accusative singular).

So:

nominative: morgunmatur
accusative: morgunmat
dative: morgunmat
genitive: morgunmatar

Can I say eftir morgunmatinn instead? What’s the difference?

Yes.

eftir morgunmat = after breakfast (in general / as an activity)
eftir morgunmatinn = after the breakfast (a specific one, e.g., the breakfast you just ate)

Adding -inn makes it definite.

Is the word order fixed? Could I move eftir morgunmat to the front?

You can move it for emphasis, and Icelandic still follows the V2 rule (the finite verb tends to be in the second position in main clauses). For example:

Eftir morgunmat les ég fréttir. (After breakfast, I read news.)
Ég les fréttir eftir morgunmat. (neutral)

Both are natural; the fronted time phrase can feel a bit more structured or emphatic.

Why is it morgunmat as one word—can Icelandic make compounds like that freely?

Yes. Icelandic is very compound-friendly. morgunmatur is literally morning + food (morgun + matur), and the accusative form used here is morgunmat. Many everyday concepts are formed this way, and compounds are usually written as a single word.

How do I pronounce the tricky parts: Ég, fréttir, eftir, morgunmat?

A learner-friendly approximation:

Ég: like yeh (the g is not a hard English g)
fréttir: roughly fryeht-tir (the é is like “yeh” with a clearer vowel)
eftir: roughly ehf-tir (with a crisp t)
morgunmat: roughly mor-gun-maht (stress on the first syllable: MOR-gun-mat)

Also note Icelandic r is typically rolled or tapped, not the English r.