Smá hvatning frá vinkonu getur breytt erfiðum degi.

Icelandic does not have an indefinite article like English a/an. So a bare singular noun can already mean a or an, depending on context.

• smá hvatning = a little encouragement
• frá vinkonu = from a friend
• erfiðum degi = a difficult day

If Icelandic wants to say the, it usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun, for example vinkonan = the female friend.

Here smá means a little, a bit of, or some. So smá hvatning is best understood as a little encouragement.

In modern everyday Icelandic, smá is very often used as an indeclinable modifier, so it does not change for gender, number, or case. That is why it stays smá even though hvatning is feminine singular nominative.

So this is a very natural phrase:

• smá hvatning = a little encouragement

Hvatning is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence — the thing that can change the difficult day.

Its dictionary form is hvatning (feminine noun), so the form in the sentence is also its basic nominative singular form.

Because the preposition frá takes the dative case.

The noun is:

• nominative: vinkona
• dative: vinkonu

So:

• frá vinkonu = from a female friend

This is a very common thing to watch for in Icelandic: prepositions often require a specific case, and frá requires dative.

Yes, vinkona specifically means a female friend. It does not normally mean a romantic girlfriend.

For a romantic girlfriend, Icelandic would usually use kærasta.

So:

• vinkona = female friend
• kærasta = girlfriend in the romantic sense

That distinction is useful, because English girlfriend can be ambiguous, while Icelandic is usually clearer here.

Getur is the 3rd person singular present form of geta, which means can / be able to.

It is singular because the subject is singular:

• Smá hvatning ... getur ...
• A little encouragement ... can ...

If the subject were plural, the verb would also be plural:

• Smá hvatningar geta ... = Little bits of encouragement can ...

This is a very common learner question. After geta, Icelandic often uses the supine form (sagnbót) of the main verb.

For this verb:

• dictionary form: breyta = to change
• supine: breytt

So:

• getur breytt = can change

Even though breytt may look like a past-participle-type form, here it is not a past tense meaning. It is just the form used after getur.

Because the verb breyta takes a dative object.

So the thing being changed appears in the dative:

• dagur = nominative
• degi = dative

And the adjective has to agree with that noun in case, gender, and number:

• erfiður dagur = a difficult day (nominative)
• erfiðum degi = a difficult day (dative)

So:

• breyta erfiðum degi = change a difficult day

This is one of those verbs whose object is not accusative, so it has to be learned with its case pattern.

The sentence has normal Icelandic main-clause word order:

Smá hvatning frá vinkonu | getur | breytt erfiðum degi

A useful thing to remember is that Icelandic is a V2 language, which means the finite verb tends to come in the second position of the clause. But position here means constituent, not individual word.

So the whole subject phrase:

• Smá hvatning frá vinkonu

counts as the first unit, and then the finite verb:

• getur

comes second.

That is why the sentence is perfectly regular, even though several words come before the verb.