Hún tekur gleraugun af borðinu og gefur mér þau.

In Icelandic, gleraugu is normally a plural noun, just like English glasses. So gleraugun means the glasses.

You can think of it as a plural-only noun in ordinary use. Icelandic usually does not need a structure like a pair of glasses unless you specifically want to emphasize the pair.

The ending shows that the noun is definite: the glasses rather than just glasses.

A very important Icelandic pattern is that the is often attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word.

So:

• gleraugu = glasses
• gleraugun = the glasses

For a learner, the safest approach is to memorize gleraugun as the definite form of gleraugu.

Because af takes the dative case here, so borð has to appear in its dative singular definite form:

• borð = table
• borðinu = the table, in the dative

So:

• af borðinu = off the table / from the table

This is a very common Icelandic pattern: after certain prepositions, the noun changes form depending on the case they require.

No. In this sentence, af means off or from, not English of.

So tekur gleraugun af borðinu means takes the glasses off the table.

This is a good word to watch carefully, because English speakers often want to connect af with of, but in many sentences it is closer to off or from.

Because gefa normally works like this:

• gefa einhverjum eitthvað = to give someone something

The someone is in the dative case, and mér is the dative form of ég.

So:

• ég = I
• mig = me, accusative
• mér = me, dative

In gefur mér þau, mér means to me.

Because þau refers back to gleraugun, and it has to match that noun in gender and number.

Gleraugu is a neuter plural noun, so the pronoun is also neuter plural:

• þau = them, referring to a neuter plural noun

Even though glasses are inanimate, Icelandic still uses grammatical gender. So the choice of þau is based on grammar, not on natural gender.

Because here the pronoun is the direct object of gefur: she gives them.

That means Icelandic uses the accusative form. For the neuter plural pronoun, nominative and accusative are both þau.

Compare:

• þau = they / them, neuter plural nominative or accusative
• þeim = them, dative

So in this sentence:

• mér = to me, dative
• þau = them, accusative

That is the normal Icelandic order with gefa:

• verb
• indirect object
• direct object

So literally it is something like:

• gives me them

This is perfectly normal in Icelandic. English often prefers gives them to me, but Icelandic commonly puts the indirect object first: gefur mér þau.

They are both present tense, 3rd person singular verb forms:

• tekur = takes, from taka
• gefur = gives, from gefa

Since the subject is hún = she, both verbs appear in the she form:

• Hún tekur ... og gefur ... = She takes ... and gives ...

In a full sentence like this, yes, it is natural to include þau.

Without it, og gefur mér would feel incomplete, because gefa usually needs both:

• the recipient
• the thing being given

So þau is there to mean them and to avoid repeating gleraugun.

Normally, Icelandic does not drop subject pronouns the way some languages do. So hún is natural and expected here.

That means:

• Hún tekur ... = She takes ...

If you removed hún, the sentence would usually sound unfinished unless the subject had already been expressed in another way.

Because Icelandic usually puts the definite article onto the noun itself.

In this sentence, that happens twice:

• gleraugun = the glasses
• borðinu = the table in the dative form

So instead of using a separate word like English the, Icelandic often builds definiteness directly into the noun form.