Barnið sofnaði fljótt eftir langt faðmlag frá mömmu sinni.

Barnið = barn + the suffixed definite article -ið.

• barn = child
• barnið = the child

This is very typical in Icelandic: instead of a separate word for the, Icelandic usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun.

Also, barnið here is nominative singular, because it is the subject of the sentence.

Yes, barn is a neuter noun in Icelandic. That is a matter of grammatical gender, not necessarily biological sex.

So:

• barn is grammatically neuter
• barnið therefore takes neuter forms in grammar

That does not mean the speaker is being cold or impersonal. It is just how the noun works in Icelandic. Many nouns referring to people do not match natural gender in the same way English expects.

Because sofna and sofa mean different things:

• sofa = to sleep
• sofna = to fall asleep

So:

• Barnið svaf = The child slept
• Barnið sofnaði = The child fell asleep

In this sentence, the idea is that the child went to sleep, so sofnaði is the right verb.

Sofnaði is:

• past tense
• 3rd person singular

It matches barnið = the child.

So the core clause is:

• Barnið sofnaði = The child fell asleep

In Icelandic, a singular subject like barnið takes a singular verb.

Fljótt is the adverb form, meaning quickly.

Compare:

• fljótur = quick, fast (masculine adjective)
• fljót = quick, fast (feminine adjective / also neuter plural in some contexts)
• fljótt = quickly / fast (adverb, and also neuter singular adjective form)

In Icelandic, the adverb is often identical to the neuter singular form of the adjective. So:

• Barnið sofnaði fljótt = The child fell asleep quickly

Here eftir means after in a time/sequence sense, and in this usage it takes the accusative.

So:

• eftir langt faðmlag = after a long hug

The noun faðmlag is neuter singular, and the adjective langt matches it.

A useful thing to notice: in neuter singular, the nominative and accusative forms often look the same. That is why you see langt faðmlag, not a visibly different ending here.

If this were a masculine noun, the accusative would often be easier to spot.

Faðmlag means hug or embrace.

It can sound a little more like embrace in some contexts, but in everyday translation hug is very natural here.

So langt faðmlag is literally:

• a long hug
• or a long embrace

Because frá takes the dative case.

So:

• mamma = nominative
• mömmu = dative (also accusative in this noun’s declension)

That gives:

• frá mömmu = from mom / from the mother

This is a very common thing to learn with Icelandic prepositions: many of them require a specific case, and frá is one of the prepositions that takes dative.

Sinni is a form of the reflexive possessive pronoun sinn.

In this sentence:

• frá mömmu sinni = from his/her own mother

The key idea is that sinn refers back to the subject of the clause, which here is barnið.

So the sentence means the child got a hug from its own mother, not someone else’s mother.

This is a very important Icelandic pattern:

• sinn = one’s own, referring back to the subject

Because sinn must agree with the noun it goes with — in gender, number, and case.

It refers back to barnið, but its form matches mömmu:

• mamma is feminine
• singular
• here in the dative after frá

So the correct form is:

• sinni = feminine singular dative

That is why Icelandic learners often need to separate two ideas:

1. Who does it refer back to?
   → the subject, barnið

2. What form does it take?
   → it agrees with mömmu, so sinni

Because hennar would not normally show the same reflexive relationship.

Compare the idea:

• mamma sín / mömmu sinni = his/her own mother, referring back to the subject
• mamma hennar / mömmu hennar = her mother, which could mean someone else’s mother, not necessarily the subject’s own

So sinni makes it clear that the mother belongs to the child who is the subject of the sentence.

Because Icelandic has no indefinite article.

So where English says:

• a long hug

Icelandic simply says:

• langt faðmlag

Icelandic does have a definite article, but it is usually attached to the noun:

• faðmlag = a hug / hug
• faðmlagið = the hug

The word order is very natural and straightforward:

• Barnið = subject
• sofnaði = verb
• fljótt = adverb
• eftir langt faðmlag frá mömmu sinni = prepositional phrase

So the sentence flows as:

• The child fell asleep quickly after a long hug from its own mother

A learner should also know that Icelandic is a verb-second language in main clauses. That means the finite verb often stays in the second position.

For example, you could also say:

• Eftir langt faðmlag frá mömmu sinni sofnaði barnið fljótt.

That is still grammatical, but once the sentence begins with the eftir phrase, the verb sofnaði still comes before barnið because of verb-second word order.