Hún er með lítið sár á fingrinum eftir að hún skar peru.

Að vera með is a very common Icelandic way to express having something, especially in everyday speech. In sentences like this, it often sounds natural for temporary situations, physical conditions, or things someone is currently dealing with.

So:

• Hún er með lítið sár = She has a small wound / cut
• literally, it is something like She is with a small wound, but idiomatically it means she has

You can also use hafa (to have) in Icelandic, but vera með is often more natural in conversational language for this kind of situation.

Because lítið has to agree with sár.

In Icelandic, adjectives change form to match the noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, sár is a neuter singular noun, so the adjective must also be neuter singular:

• lítill = masculine
• lítil = feminine
• lítið = neuter

So:

• lítið sár = a small wound

In this sentence, sár is the thing she has, so it is in the form used for the object of vera með. Here that gives lítið sár.

For this noun, the nominative and accusative singular look the same:

• nominative: sár
• accusative: sár

So even though the form does not change visibly, it is still functioning as the object in the sentence.

This is very common in Icelandic: sometimes the case is important grammatically even when the word form itself does not look different.

Because á takes different cases depending on meaning:

• accusative for movement onto something
• dative for location on something

Here the wound is located on the finger, not moving onto it, so Icelandic uses the dative:

• á fingrinum = on the finger

Compare:

• á borðið = onto the table (movement)
• á borðinu = on the table (location)

So á fingrinum is correct because it describes where the wound is.

The ending -num shows two things at once:

1. the noun is definite: the finger
2. the noun is in the dative singular

The base noun is:

• fingur = finger

And here we get:

• fingrinum = the finger (dative singular)

Icelandic usually puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English does.

So:

• fingur = a finger
• fingurinn = the finger
• fingrinum = the finger (in dative)

Because the sentence means:

• a small wound
• on the finger

The wound is being introduced as an indefinite thing, so Icelandic leaves it indefinite:

• lítið sár = a small wound

But the finger is treated as specific, so it is definite:

• fingrinum = the finger

This difference is very normal in Icelandic, just as it is in English.

Eftir að means after and introduces a subordinate clause.

So:

• eftir að hún skar peru = after she cut a pear

It connects the current situation with an earlier action. In this sentence, it explains the cause or background of the wound: she has the wound after cutting a pear.

It is very common to use eftir að with a full clause containing its own subject and verb.

Because Icelandic, like English, normally needs a subject in each clause.

The sentence has two clauses:

1. Hún er með lítið sár á fingrinum
2. eftir að hún skar peru

The second clause also needs its own subject, so Icelandic says hún again.

This is just like English:

• She has a small cut on her finger after she cut a pear

You would not normally leave out the second she.

Yes. Skar is the past tense of skera (to cut), and it is irregular.

Important forms are:

• skera = to cut
• sker = cuts / is cutting
• skar = cut
• skorið = cut (past participle)

So:

• hún skar peru = she cut a pear

This vowel change is typical of a strong verb in Icelandic.

Because pera is the direct object of skar, so it appears in the accusative singular.

The noun is:

• nominative: pera
• accusative: peru

So:

• hún skar peru = she cut a pear

This is a very common pattern with feminine nouns ending in -a: the accusative singular often ends in -u.

No. Pera can also mean light bulb in Icelandic.

So out of context, skar peru could look ambiguous for a learner. But in this sentence, the intended meaning is clearly pear, since that makes sense with getting a small cut on a finger.

Context often tells you which meaning is meant.

It can cover several related meanings, including:

• wound
• sore
• cut

In this sentence, because it happens after she cut a pear, English would often naturally say a small cut. But sár itself is a broader word than just one exact English option.

So the best English wording depends on context, even though the Icelandic word stays the same.