Hún segir að öxlin sé ekki eins slæm og hnéð, svo hún getur samt gengið heim.

Here að means that and introduces a subordinate clause:

Hún segir að ... = She says that ...

This is very common after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, hearing, and so on.

Sé is the present subjunctive form of vera = to be.

In Icelandic, indirect or reported speech after a verb like segja often uses the subjunctive:

• Hún segir að öxlin sé slæm = She says that the shoulder is bad

So sé helps show that this is what she says, rather than a direct statement by the speaker. In everyday language, learners may sometimes also come across er in similar sentences, but sé is very common and standard here.

Those are the definite forms of the nouns, meaning the shoulder and the knee.

In Icelandic, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word:

• öxl = shoulder

• öxlin = the shoulder

• hné = knee
• hnéð = the knee

So Icelandic often says the equivalent of shoulder-the and knee-the.

Because the sentence is talking about specific body parts that are already understood in the situation: her shoulder and her knee.

That is very natural in Icelandic. With body parts, Icelandic often uses the definite form when a particular known body part is meant.

This is the Icelandic pattern for not as ... as ...:

• eins + adjective + og = as + adjective + as
• ekki eins slæm og ... = not as bad as ...

So:

• öxlin er ekki eins slæm og hnéð
  = the shoulder is not as bad as the knee

Because slæm agrees with öxlin, not with hnéð.

Öxl is a feminine noun, so the adjective is feminine singular:

• öxlin = feminine
• slæm = feminine singular form of slæmur = bad

It is not neuter because the adjective describes the shoulder, not the knee.

It is nominative.

You can think of the comparison as a shortened version of a fuller sentence:

• öxlin er ekki eins slæm og hnéð er slæmt

In real Icelandic, the repeated part is normally left out:

• öxlin er ekki eins slæm og hnéð

So hnéð stays as the subject of the understood second clause.

Here svo means so or therefore:

• ..., svo hún getur samt gengið heim
• ..., so she can still walk home

It is linking the first statement to the result. This is different from svo að, which usually means so that.

Samt means still, nevertheless, or all the same.

It shows that even though the shoulder and knee are in bad shape, she is still able to walk home.

So:

• hún getur samt gengið heim
• she can still walk home
• she can walk home anyway

After geta, Icelandic normally uses the verb form called sagnbót. Here that form is gengið from ganga.

So:

• ganga = dictionary form, to walk
• gengið = the form used after geta

That means:

• hún getur gengið heim = she can walk home

Even though gengið may look like a past form to an English speaker, it is not past tense here. The tense comes from getur, which is present tense.

Because heim is very often used as an adverb meaning home or homeward.

So:

• ganga heim = walk home
• fara heim = go home
• koma heim = come home

English does the same thing in go home, where home also appears without a preposition.

Here are the main base forms:

• hún = she
• segir → segja = to say
• öxlin → öxl = shoulder
• sé → vera = to be
• slæm → slæmur = bad
• hnéð → hné = knee
• getur → geta = can, be able to
• gengið → ganga = to walk
• heim = home, homeward

This is especially useful because several of the forms in the sentence are not the dictionary forms learners first meet.