Það varð smá truflun á fundinum þegar síminn hennar hringdi.

No. Here Það is not the demonstrative that. It is a dummy subject or expletive, similar to English there or it in sentences like There was a problem or It happened.

So Það varð smá truflun is literally something like It became a small disturbance, but naturally it means There was a slight interruption.

Icelandic often uses það this way when introducing an event or situation.

Varð is the past tense of verða, which usually means to become.

In this sentence, though, it is used in a very common idiomatic way:

• Það varð smá truflun = There was a slight interruption
• more literally: A slight interruption came about / arose

This gives a sense that the interruption happened or arose at that moment. If you used var instead, the sentence would sound a bit more like simply describing a state:

• Það var smá truflun = There was a slight interruption

Both are possible, but varð feels a bit more event-like.

Smá is very often used in modern Icelandic as an indeclinable modifier meaning small, little, or slight. That means it often stays the same instead of changing form for gender, number, and case.

So:

• smá truflun = a slight interruption

This is very natural in everyday Icelandic. A more traditional fully agreeing adjective would be:

• lítil truflun

Since truflun is feminine singular nominative, lítil would match it. But smá is extremely common and perfectly normal.

Truflun means disturbance, interruption, or disruption.

In this sentence, it refers to a brief disturbance in the meeting caused by the phone ringing. So English might translate it as:

• a slight interruption
• a small disturbance
• a minor disruption

The noun is feminine.

Á fundinum means at the meeting.

Here is the breakdown:

• fundur = meeting
• fundinum = the meeting in the dative singular

The preposition á can take different cases:

• accusative for movement onto something
• dative for location or being at/in a place

Since this sentence is about something happening at the meeting, not movement onto it, Icelandic uses the dative:

• á fundinum = at the meeting

In Icelandic, possessive pronouns often come after the noun, especially in ordinary, neutral expressions:

• síminn hennar = her phone

This is a very common pattern. Literally it looks like the phone her, but it is just normal Icelandic.

You can also say hennar sími, but that often sounds more emphatic, contrastive, or stylistically marked, as if you are stressing that it was her phone and not someone else’s.

So in a neutral sentence like this, síminn hennar is the most natural choice.

Because Icelandic commonly uses the definite noun + possessive pronoun pattern.

So:

• síminn hennar literally = the phone her
• natural English = her phone

This is different from English, where we normally do not say the phone her. But in Icelandic this is a standard structure.

So the presence of -inn on síminn is not redundant in Icelandic; it is part of the normal way of expressing possession.

Hennar is the genitive form of the pronoun hún (she).

Icelandic often uses the genitive to express possession, so:

• hennar = her / hers

That is why:

• síminn hennar = her phone

This is one of the genitive possessive pronoun forms you will see very often:

• minn / mín / mitt and related forms are one system
• hans, hennar, þess, okkar, ykkar, þeirra are another common possessive set

It can mean either, depending on context.

The verb is hringja. In this sentence:

• síminn hennar hringdi = her phone rang

So here it is intransitive: the phone itself is making the sound.

But hringja can also mean to call / phone someone:

• Hún hringdi í mig = She called me

So the verb has both uses, and context tells you which meaning is intended.

Good question. Icelandic does often show verb-second word order in main clauses, especially after something has been placed first.

But þegar síminn hennar hringdi is a subordinate clause introduced by þegar (when). In subordinate clauses, the word order is often more straightforward:

• þegar síminn hennar hringdi = when her phone rang

So you get:

• þegar
  • subject
    • verb

The inversion English speakers often notice in Icelandic is mainly a main-clause phenomenon, not something that automatically happens after every introductory word.

Yes. You could say:

Þegar síminn hennar hringdi, varð smá truflun á fundinum.

That means the same thing: When her phone rang, there was a slight interruption at the meeting.

Putting the when-clause first changes the focus a little, but not the basic meaning. Icelandic is quite flexible here, though the word order of the main clause then follows Icelandic main-clause rules.