Ég skil ekki alltaf það sem stendur í athugasemdunum, svo ég spyr kennarann.

In Icelandic, að skilja means to understand, so Ég skil ekki means I do not understand.

That is different from:

• að vita = to know a fact
• að kunna = to know how / be able to / know by heart
• að skilja = to understand

So here the speaker is not saying they lack information in general; they are saying they do not understand what is written.

In Icelandic, ekki usually comes before the word or phrase it negates. Here the meaning is I do not always understand..., so ekki comes before alltaf:

• Ég skil ekki alltaf ... = I do not always understand ...

If you said Ég skil alltaf ekki ..., it would sound wrong or very unnatural in normal Icelandic.

So the pattern is:

• verb + ekki + adverb/time expression

in many ordinary sentences like this.

það sem means something like what or that which.

So:

• það sem stendur í athugasemdunum = what is written in the comments

This is a very common Icelandic structure. It often introduces a clause describing the thing that... or what...

Examples:

• Ég veit það sem þú sagðir. = I know what you said.
• Þetta er það sem ég vil. = This is what I want.

Even though það literally means that/it, in this pattern það sem works together as a unit.

Yes, stendur is from að standa, which literally means to stand. But Icelandic often uses standa in the sense of be written or appear in text.

So:

• Það stendur í bókinni ... = It says in the book ...
• Það sem stendur í athugasemdunum = what is written in the comments

This is very idiomatic and common. English also does something similar when we say it says even though the text is not literally speaking.

Because the preposition í often takes the dative when it means in a location.

Here the meaning is location, not motion:

• í athugasemdunum = in the comments

The form breaks down like this:

• athugasemd = comment / note
• athugasemdir = comments (plural nominative/accusative)
• athugasemdum = dative plural
• athugasemdunum = the comments in dative plural

So the ending -unum shows:

• plural
• definite (the)
• dative

Athugasemd can mean comment, remark, note, or annotation, depending on context.

In this sentence, athugasemdunum most naturally means the comments or the notes/comments.

So if this is about schoolwork, it could refer to:

• teacher comments
• written notes
• remarks in feedback

The exact English translation depends on context, but comments is a very natural choice here.

Because stendur agrees with the subject of its own clause, and the subject is not athugasemdunum.

The clause is:

• það sem stendur í athugasemdunum

Here, the thing being talked about is það sem = what / that which, and the verb is singular:

• stendur = stands / is written (3rd person singular)

í athugasemdunum is just a prepositional phrase meaning in the comments. It tells you where the writing appears; it is not the grammatical subject.

Here svo means so, in the sense of therefore / as a result.

The sentence structure is:

• I do not always understand what is written in the comments, so I ask the teacher.

In Icelandic, svo can also have other meanings depending on context, such as then, thus, or part of other expressions. But in this sentence it connects cause and result.

Because the verb að spyrja takes a direct object in the accusative when you ask a person.

So:

• ég spyr kennarann = I ask the teacher

The noun changes like this:

• kennari = teacher
• kennarann = the teacher (accusative singular)

This is a very important Icelandic pattern: many verbs require a specific case for their objects, and you have to learn that with the verb.

Not exactly. Icelandic að spyrja often works like this:

• spyrja einhvern = ask someone
• spyrja einhvern að einhverju / um eitthvað = ask someone about something

So in this sentence:

• ég spyr kennarann = I ask the teacher

A fuller sentence could be:

• Ég spyr kennarann um þetta. = I ask the teacher about this.

English and Icelandic are similar here, but Icelandic case marking makes the grammar more visible.

Because the sentence simply says I ask the teacher, not I ask the teacher about it.

The speaker does not explicitly mention the topic after spyr. The meaning is understood from the previous clause:

• they do not understand what is written
• therefore they ask the teacher

If you wanted to make the topic explicit, you could say something like:

• svo ég spyr kennarann um það = so I ask the teacher about it

But the original sentence is completely natural without that extra phrase.

Yes, literally that is close:

• það = that / it
• sem = which / that
• stendur = stands

So word-for-word it looks like that which stands. But in natural English here, that would sound strange. Because standa can mean be written, the best translation is:

• what is written

This is a good example of why literal translation can help you understand the grammar, but not always the natural meaning.

A very rough pronunciation guide for an English speaker is:

• Ég skil ekki alltaf það sem stendur í athugasemdunum, svo ég spyr kennarann.
• yeg skihl EHK-ih AHL-taf thah sem STEN-dur ee AH-thu-ga-sehm-duh-nun, svo yeg spir KEN-na-rann

A few important points:

• é sounds roughly like ye in yes
• þ sounds like th in thin
• ð often sounds like th in this, though in some positions it is weaker
• ll in alltaf has a special Icelandic sound that is hard to represent exactly
• y / i are pronounced similarly in modern Icelandic
• stress usually falls on the first syllable

This is only approximate, but it can help you start reading the sentence aloud.