Barnið gleymir stundum tannkreminu, svo móðirin minnir hana á tannburstann líka.

The child sometimes forgets the toothpaste, so the mother reminds her of the toothbrush too.

Breakdown of Barnið gleymir stundum tannkreminu, svo móðirin minnir hana á tannburstann líka.

• líka: too
• barnið: the child
• stundum: sometimes
• svo: so
• gleyma: to forget
• hana: her
• móðirin: the mother
• tannburstinn: the toothbrush
• tannkremið: the toothpaste
• minna á: to remind

Questions & Answers about Barnið gleymir stundum tannkreminu, svo móðirin minnir hana á tannburstann líka.

Why does gleymir take tannkreminu (dative) instead of tannkremið/tannkrem?

The verb að gleyma typically governs the dative for the thing that is forgotten in standard Icelandic:

• að gleyma einhverju → Ég gleymi bókinni / tannkreminu So tannkreminu is dative singular definite of tannkrem.
  (Some speakers may use the accusative in casual speech, but dative is the usual/expected form.)

What case is tannkreminu exactly, and how is it formed?

tannkrem is a neuter noun. With the definite article, its singular forms are typically:

• Nominative/Accusative: tannkremið
• Dative: tannkreminu
• Genitive: tannkremsins

So -inu here is the dative singular definite ending.

Why is it minnir hana á tannburstann—what cases are being used there?

The pattern is:

• að minna einhvern á eitthvað = to remind someone of something

Cases:

• einhvern (the person reminded) → accusative: hana
• á eitthvað (what they’re reminded of) → á + accusative: á tannburstann

So both hana and tannburstann are accusative, but for different reasons (direct object vs. object of á).

Why is it tannburstann and not tannburstanum or tannbursti?

Because á in this meaning (remind someone of) takes the accusative.
tannbursti is masculine, and the accusative singular definite is tannburstann:

• tannbursti (nom. indef.)
• tannburstann (acc. def.)
• tannburstanum would be dative, which doesn’t fit after á here.

Why does the sentence use hana (her) when barnið is grammatically neuter?

This is a common point of confusion. barnið is grammatically neuter because barn is a neuter noun.
But when you’re talking about a real child whose gender is known (e.g., a girl), Icelandic often switches to a natural-gender pronoun:

• grammatical agreement option: refer back with það (neuter)
• natural gender option (very common for people): refer back with hún / hana if the child is a girl

So hana signals that the child is understood to be female.

What does svo mean here, and is it more like so or then?

Here svo works like so/therefore, linking the second clause as a result:

• …, svo móðirin … = …, so the mother …

Depending on context, svo can also be closer to then, but in this structure it commonly expresses consequence/result.

Why is there a comma before svo?

Because the sentence is effectively two clauses: 1) Barnið gleymir stundum tannkreminu,
2) svo móðirin minnir hana á tannburstann líka.

The comma marks the break before the result/consequence clause introduced by svo.

Why is the word order svo móðirin minnir… and not svo minnir móðirin…?

In this sentence, svo behaves like a coordinating linker (so/therefore) introducing a new main clause, and the clause keeps normal main-clause order:

• (linker) + subject + verb … → svo móðirin minnir …

If you instead used an adverbial setup like þá (then), you’d more often see verb-second inversion:

• þá minnir móðirin hana …

What does stundum do, and where can it go in the sentence?

stundum means sometimes and is an adverb. Its placement is fairly flexible, but common positions are:

• after the verb: Barnið gleymir stundum tannkreminu
• earlier for emphasis: Stundum gleymir barnið tannkreminu (more focus on “sometimes”)

What does líka attach to here—does it mean “also” about the mother reminding, or about the toothbrush?

In this placement, líka most naturally means the mother reminds her about the toothbrush as well (in addition to the toothpaste):

• … minnir hana á tannburstann líka ≈ reminds her about the toothbrush too

If you wanted “the mother also reminds her” (mother in addition to someone else), you might place it differently, e.g. móðirin minnir hana líka á tannburstann.

Why are barnið and móðirin both definite (-ið, -in)?

Icelandic often uses the definite form when the speaker has a specific, identifiable person/thing in mind:

• barnið = the child (a particular child in context)
• móðirin = the mother (the child’s mother, identifiable from context)

Using the indefinite (barn, móðir) would sound more like introducing them as non-specific (“a child… a mother…”).

Are tannkrem and tannbursti just normal nouns, or are they special compound words?

They’re very normal Icelandic compounds:

• tönn (tooth) → tann- as the combining form
• krem (cream) → tannkrem (toothpaste)
• bursti (brush) → tannbursti (toothbrush)

Compounds are extremely common in Icelandic, and the main stress is typically on the first part: TANN-krem, TANN-bursti.