Breakdown of Hann var feginn að vinkona hans gat bjargað deginum með því að sækja börnin.
vera
to be
dagurinn
the day
barnið
the child
hann
he
Questions & Answers about Hann var feginn að vinkona hans gat bjargað deginum með því að sækja börnin.
Why is feginn used here?
Feginn means glad, pleased, or often relieved about a particular situation. In the pattern vera feginn að..., it matches English to be glad that... very naturally. Icelandic also has glaður, but feginn often feels especially suitable when someone is happy that something worked out well.
Why is it feginn and not some other form of the adjective?
Icelandic adjectives agree with the noun or pronoun they describe. Here the subject is hann, which is masculine singular nominative, so the adjective also appears in the masculine singular nominative form: feginn. If the subject were different, the adjective form would change too.
What does the first að mean?
Here að means that and introduces a subordinate clause: að vinkona hans gat bjargað deginum... So the structure is basically He was glad that.... This is different from the later að in með því að, which belongs to a different construction.
Why is it vinkona hans and not vinkona sín?