Ég get ekki hreyft höndina.

A natural breakdown is:

• Ég = I
• get = can / am able to
• ekki = not
• hreyft = move
• höndina = the hand / my hand

So the structure is basically I can not move the hand, which in natural English is I can’t move my hand.

Here get is the 1st person singular present tense of the verb geta.

In this sentence, geta means can / be able to.

So:

• ég get = I can
• þú getur = you can
• hann/hún/það getur = he/she/it can

It may look like English get, but in this sentence it does not mean receive or obtain. It means be able to.

Because this sentence is about ability, not permission.

• geta = can / be able to
• mega = may / be allowed to

So:

• Ég get ekki hreyft höndina = I can’t move my hand
  → I am unable to do it.

But:

• Ég má ekki hreyfa höndina = I’m not allowed to move my hand
  → permission is forbidden.

That is an important difference in Icelandic.

In a normal Icelandic main clause, the finite verb usually comes early in the sentence, and ekki typically comes after that finite verb.

So:

• Ég get ekki ... = I can not ...

This placement is very normal in Icelandic.

You will see the same pattern in many sentences:

• Ég veit ekki. = I don’t know.
• Hann kemur ekki. = He isn’t coming.
• Við skiljum ekki. = We don’t understand.

Because after geta in this kind of sentence, Icelandic normally uses the supine form, called sagnbót, not the infinitive.

For this verb:

• að hreyfa = infinitive, to move
• hreyft = supine

So the sentence is correctly:

• Ég get ekki hreyft höndina.

This is a pattern worth learning as a chunk with geta:

• Ég get farið. = I can go.
• Ég get séð það. = I can see that.
• Ég get hreyft höndina. = I can move my hand.

Because geta does not take að before the following verb in this construction.

So you say:

• Ég get ekki hreyft höndina.

Not:

• Ég get ekki að hreyfa höndina.

A useful habit is to learn geta + sagnbót as a fixed pattern.

In Icelandic, the definite article is often attached to the end of the noun instead of appearing as a separate word.

So:

• hönd = hand
• höndin = the hand in the nominative
• höndina = the hand in the accusative

So höndina is not just hand. It already includes the.

That is why Icelandic often looks more compact than English.

Höndina is accusative singular definite.

Why? Because it is the direct object of the verb hreyfa. The thing being moved is the hand, so that noun appears in the accusative.

Very roughly:

• Ég hreyfi höndina. = I move the hand / my hand.
• Ég get ekki hreyft höndina. = I can’t move the hand / my hand.

So the accusative here is caused by the verb-object relationship.

With body parts, Icelandic very often uses the definite noun where English would use a possessive like my.

So:

• höndina here naturally means my hand

This is very common in Icelandic:

• Ég meiddi fótinn. = I hurt my foot.
• Hann lyfti höfðinu. = He raised his head.

You can say hönd mína, but that is more marked and may sound more emphatic, contrastive, or stylistically different.

Yes, it is somewhat irregular, so it is a good noun to memorize carefully.

Useful forms include:

• hönd = hand
• höndin = the hand
• höndina = the hand as object
• hendur = hands

Because the forms are not completely predictable for beginners, it is best to learn them as whole forms rather than trying to guess them.

Yes, but it is not exactly the same.

• Ég get ekki hreyft höndina = I can’t move my hand
  → focuses on my inability

• Höndin hreyfist ekki = The hand doesn’t move / isn’t moving
  → focuses on the hand itself not moving

The second sentence uses hreyfast, which is a different verb form and gives the sentence a different perspective.

So they are related, but not fully interchangeable.

Yes, but Icelandic keeps a strong verb-second pattern in main clauses.

The basic sentence is:

• Ég get ekki hreyft höndina.

But if you want to emphasize something else, you can move another element to the front, and the finite verb still stays in second position:

• Núna get ég ekki hreyft höndina. = Now I can’t move my hand.
• Höndina get ég ekki hreyft. = My hand, I can’t move.

So the order can change for emphasis, but it is not random.

You would change get to the past tense gat:

• Ég gat ekki hreyft höndina. = I couldn’t move my hand.

So the pattern is:

• Ég get ekki hreyft höndina. = I can’t move my hand.
• Ég gat ekki hreyft höndina. = I couldn’t move my hand.

That is a very useful pair to memorize together.