Hún athugar dekkin áður en hún keyrir í vinnuna.

Athugar is the 3rd person singular present tense of athuga.

So:

• að athuga = to check / inspect / examine
• hún athugar = she checks

In this sentence, it means she checks the tires before leaving.

Because dekkin means the tires.

The noun is dekk (a neuter noun), and in the plural:

• dekk = tires
• dekkin = the tires

So the sentence is talking about specific tires, not tires in general.

Also, athuga takes a direct object, and here that object is in the accusative plural. For dekk, the plural form looks the same in nominative and accusative, so you still get dekkin.

Áður en means before when it introduces a whole clause.

So:

• áður en hún keyrir í vinnuna = before she drives to work

This is a very common fixed expression in Icelandic:

• áður en ég fer = before I go
• áður en við byrjum = before we begin

It is not just one word doing the job by itself here; áður en works together as a conjunction.

Because Icelandic normally uses a full clause here:

• áður en hún keyrir í vinnuna

That clause needs its own subject, so hún is stated again.

English often allows shorter structures like before driving to work, but Icelandic very often prefers the full clause with an explicit subject:

• áður en hún keyrir = before she drives

So the repeated hún is perfectly normal.

Keyrir is the 3rd person singular present tense of keyra.

• að keyra = to drive
• hún keyrir = she drives

It is not an infinitive because after áður en, Icelandic uses a finite clause:

• áður en hún keyrir = before she drives

So you need a conjugated verb, not the dictionary form.

Í vinnuna means to work here, more literally something like into/to the work.

The important grammar point is that í can take two different cases:

• accusative for movement toward / into
• dative for location inside / in

So:

• í vinnuna = to work / going to work
• í vinnunni = at work / in the workplace

Since she is driving to work, Icelandic uses accusative, so vinnuna is correct.

This is one of those places where Icelandic and English do not match word-for-word.

In Icelandic, expressions like fara í vinnuna and keyra í vinnuna are very natural, with the definite ending:

• vinnuna = the work

But idiomatically, the whole phrase just means to work.

So even though English says go to work, Icelandic often says the equivalent of go to the work.

Yes. Both verbs are in the present tense:

• athugar = checks
• keyrir = drives

In Icelandic, just like in English, the present tense can describe a habitual action or routine:

• Hún athugar dekkin áður en hún keyrir í vinnuna.
• She checks the tires before she drives to work.

So this sounds like something she regularly does.

The sentence has:

1. a main clause
   
   • Hún athugar dekkin
2. a subordinate clause introduced by áður en
   
   • áður en hún keyrir í vinnuna

In the main clause, Icelandic normally follows verb-second word order. Since hún comes first, the finite verb athugar comes second.

In the subordinate clause, you get the normal order:

• hún keyrir

You can also move the time clause to the front:

• Áður en hún keyrir í vinnuna, athugar hún dekkin.

Notice that in that version, athugar still comes before hún in the main clause, because of verb-second word order.

Yes, both can relate to driving, but keyra is extremely common and straightforward in everyday Icelandic.

• að keyra = to drive
• að aka = to drive, to travel by vehicle

For many learners, keyra is the more practical everyday verb to learn first. In this sentence, hún keyrir í vinnuna is a very natural way to say she drives to work.

Vinna is a feminine noun.

That matters because Icelandic endings change according to gender, number, and case. Here:

• base form: vinna
• accusative singular with the definite article: vinnuna

So the ending in í vinnuna reflects both:

• the noun’s gender (feminine)
• the case required by í when showing movement (accusative)

Yes. You would usually say:

• Áður en hún keyrir í vinnuna, athugar hún dekkin.

That is the same meaning, just with the time clause first.

The key thing to notice is that when the sentence begins with Áður en hún keyrir í vinnuna, the main clause still follows Icelandic verb-second order:

• athugar hún dekkin
• not hún athugar dekkin

So changing the order in Icelandic affects the placement of the verb.