Eftir langan dag er öxlin mín þreytt og mér er illt í hnénu.

to be

Breakdown of Eftir langan dag er öxlin mín þreytt og mér er illt í hnénu.

• dagurinn: the day
• minn: my
• og: and

Questions & Answers about Eftir langan dag er öxlin mín þreytt og mér er illt í hnénu.

Why is it langan dag after eftir?

Because eftir means after here in a time sense, and in that use it takes the accusative case.

So:

• dagur becomes dag
• langur becomes langan

That gives eftir langan dag = after a long day.

Why does the sentence start with Eftir langan dag and then immediately use er?

Icelandic is a verb-second language in main clauses. That means the finite verb usually comes in the second position.

Here, Eftir langan dag is placed first as a time phrase, so er comes next:

• Eftir langan dag er öxlin mín þreytt

A more neutral order would be:

• Öxlin mín er þreytt eftir langan dag

Both are possible, but the given sentence follows the normal Icelandic word-order rule.

What exactly is öxlin?

Öxlin is the definite nominative singular form of öxl, which means shoulder.

Icelandic usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun:

• öxl = a shoulder
• öxlin = the shoulder