Hún hreinsar eldhúsborðið eftir kvöldmat.

Icelandic very often builds long compound nouns.

• eldhús = kitchen
• borð = table

So eldhúsborð is literally kitchen-table, and then Icelandic adds the definite article to the end:

• eldhúsborð = kitchen table
• eldhúsborðið = the kitchen table

This kind of compounding is extremely common in Icelandic.

The ending -ið is the suffixed definite article, so it corresponds to English the.

For a neuter singular noun like borð, the definite form is made by adding -ið:

• borð = table
• borðið = the table

The same happens in the compound:

• eldhúsborð = kitchen table
• eldhúsborðið = the kitchen table

So Icelandic usually attaches the to the noun instead of using a separate word.

It is in the accusative, because it is the direct object of the verb hreinsar.

In the sentence, hún is doing the action, and eldhúsborðið is the thing being cleaned. That makes it the object.

With many neuter nouns, the nominative and accusative singular look the same, so the form does not change much on the surface. But grammatically, this is the accusative object.

hreinsar is the present tense, 3rd person singular form of the verb hreinsa.

So:

• að hreinsa = to clean
• ég hreinsa = I clean
• þú hreinsar = you clean
• hún hreinsar = she cleans

The ending -ar is the normal present-tense ending here for you/he/she/it.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

Icelandic present tense often works like this:

• habitual: she cleans the kitchen table after dinner
• current/immediate: she is cleaning the kitchen table after dinner

If you need to make the meaning more specific, context usually does that. The bare present tense by itself can cover both.

Because hún is the nominative form of the pronoun she, and the subject of a sentence is normally in the nominative.

Compare:

• hún = she
• hana = her

So here hún is correct because she is the one doing the action.

kvöldmatur is the dictionary form, the nominative singular.

After eftir in this kind of time expression, Icelandic uses an oblique form, and for this noun the form is kvöldmat.

So:

• kvöldmatur = dinner (nominative)
• kvöldmat = dinner (the form used here)

This is similar to how many Icelandic masculine nouns change outside the nominative.

Here eftir means after.

In a temporal expression like this, it is followed by the accusative, which is why you see kvöldmat.

So the phrase eftir kvöldmat means after dinner.

It is worth knowing that Icelandic prepositions can be tricky, and some of them take different cases in different meanings, so it is best to learn them together with examples.

Because Icelandic, like English, often leaves out the article with meal words when speaking generally.

Compare the English phrase after dinner. You do not have to say after the dinner unless you mean a particular dinner.

The same idea applies here:

• eftir kvöldmat = after dinner, in a general sense
• eftir kvöldmatinn = after the dinner, meaning a specific one

So the lack of an article here is completely natural.

Yes. Icelandic word order is fairly flexible, but in a main clause the finite verb usually stays in second position.

So you can say:

• Hún hreinsar eldhúsborðið eftir kvöldmat.
• Eftir kvöldmat hreinsar hún eldhúsborðið.

Both are good, but the emphasis changes a little. The second version puts more focus on after dinner.

They overlap, but they are not always exactly the same.

• hreinsa often means clean, clear, or remove dirt/contents from
• þrífa often suggests clean thoroughly, scrub, or tidy up

For a table, both verbs can be possible depending on the exact nuance. hreinsa is perfectly grammatical here, but in everyday speech some speakers might also use þrífa borðið or another cleaning verb depending on what kind of cleaning they mean.

A rough English-friendly guide would be something like:

ELD-hoos-bor-thith

A few helpful points:

• eldhús has stress on the first syllable: ELD-
• ú is a long oo sound
• ð is like the th in this, not the th in thin
• the final ð is often quite light in actual speech

You do not need perfect pronunciation right away; the main challenge is just getting used to Icelandic compound words and the soft ð sound.