Þar sem tannlæknirinn opnar snemma, fer hún beint til hans eftir morgunmat.

Here, þar sem means since or because. It introduces the reason for what happens in the main clause:

Þar sem tannlæknirinn opnar snemma = Since/Because the dentist opens early

A useful note: þar sem can also mean where in other contexts, so learners often have to tell from context which meaning is intended.

Tannlæknirinn means the dentist, while tannlæknir means a dentist.

Icelandic usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun, instead of using a separate word like English the. So:

• tannlæknir = dentist / a dentist
• tannlæknirinn = the dentist

In this sentence, it refers to a specific dentist already known in the context.

Yes. Opnar is the 3rd person singular present tense of að opna = to open.

So:

• hann/hún/það opnar = he/she/it opens

Icelandic often uses the present tense for scheduled or regular future events, just like English does in sentences such as The dentist opens early tomorrow. So opnar snemma is perfectly natural for opens early.

This is because of Icelandic verb-second word order in main clauses.

The sentence begins with the subordinate clause:

Þar sem tannlæknirinn opnar snemma

After that, the main clause starts. In Icelandic main clauses, the finite verb usually comes in the second position, so you get:

fer hún beint til hans

rather than hún fer beint til hans.

If the sentence started directly with the main clause, then hún fer would be normal:

Hún fer beint til hans eftir morgunmat.

But once the reason clause comes first, inversion happens:

• first position: the whole subordinate clause
• second position: fer
• then the subject: hún

No. Hún is the subject of the main clause, and it refers to some female person already known from the wider context.

The dentist in this sentence is tannlæknirinn, which is a masculine noun, so if the next clause were referring back to the dentist as the subject, you would expect hann, not hún.

So the structure is:

• the dentist opens early
• she goes directly to him afterward

Beint means directly or straight here.

So:

fer hún beint til hans = she goes straight/directly to him

It is an adverb modifying fer. It tells us how she goes: not with delays or detours, but directly.

Because the preposition til takes the genitive case.

The pronoun forms are:

• hann = he
• honum = him in the dative
• hans = his / him in the genitive

Since til requires genitive, Icelandic uses hans:

til hans = to him

In this context, it can mean literally to him, but very often with people like doctors, dentists, hairdressers, etc., it also naturally means to his place / to his office / to see him.

Eftir morgunmat means after breakfast.

There is no article here because meal expressions are often used without one, much like in English:

• after breakfast
• after lunch
• after dinner

So eftir morgunmat is the natural general expression.

As for case: here eftir means after in a time sense, and in that use it takes the dative. The noun appears here as morgunmat.

If you wanted to make it more specific, you could say eftir morgunmatinn = after the breakfast / after that specific breakfast, but the bare form is much more natural in ordinary speech.

The comma separates the subordinate clause from the main clause.

So the sentence is divided like this:

• Þar sem tannlæknirinn opnar snemma,
• fer hún beint til hans eftir morgunmat.

This is similar to English punctuation when a dependent clause comes first:

Because the dentist opens early, she goes straight to him after breakfast.

No. In this sentence, because/since is the right meaning, but þar sem can also mean where in other sentences.

For example, depending on context, þar sem might mean:

• because / since
• where

So learners should always check the role it plays in the sentence. Here, because it introduces a reason for her going, the correct sense is since/because, not where.