Amma knúsaði mig við hurðina, og það faðmlag róaði mig strax.

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Breakdown of Amma knúsaði mig við hurðina, og það faðmlag róaði mig strax.

• og: and
• hurðin: the door
• strax: immediately

Questions & Answers about Amma knúsaði mig við hurðina, og það faðmlag róaði mig strax.

Why is it Amma and not amma mín or amman?

In Icelandic, family words like amma often appear without a possessive when the person is understood to be your own relative. So Amma knúsaði mig naturally means Grandma hugged me.

A few useful points:

• amma mín = my grandma, but it is more explicit and can sound more emphatic or personal.
• amman = the grandma, which is usually not what you want when talking about your own grandmother in a normal sentence.
• Icelandic often uses kinship terms a bit like names:
  • Mamma kom.
  • Pabbi sagði þetta.
  • Amma knúsaði mig.

So Amma here is perfectly natural.

What form is knúsaði, and what is the dictionary form?

Knúsaði is the past tense of the verb að knúsa = to hug.

So:

• að knúsa = to hug
• ég knúsa = I hug / I am hugging
• ég knúsaði = I hugged

In the sentence:

• Amma knúsaði mig = Grandma hugged me

This is a very common weak-verb past tense pattern in Icelandic, where the past often ends in -aði or a similar ending.