Breakdown of Hún athugar aftur hvort heimilisfang móttakandans sé rétt og hvort símanúmer sendandans sé á pakkanum.
Questions & Answers about Hún athugar aftur hvort heimilisfang móttakandans sé rétt og hvort símanúmer sendandans sé á pakkanum.
What does hvort mean here?
Here hvort means whether.
It introduces an indirect yes/no question:
- hvort heimilisfang móttakandans sé rétt = whether the recipient’s address is correct
- hvort símanúmer sendandans sé á pakkanum = whether the sender’s phone number is on the package
A very common learner question is whether hvort can mean if. In English, if and whether can overlap, but in Icelandic hvort is the standard choice in this kind of indirect question.
Why is hvort repeated twice?
Because there are two separate whether-clauses:
- hvort heimilisfang móttakandans sé rétt
- og hvort símanúmer sendandans sé á pakkanum
In English, you might sometimes say She checks whether the address is correct and the phone number is on the package, without repeating whether. Icelandic often keeps the second hvort to make the structure clear.
Why is it sé instead of er?
Sé is the present subjunctive of vera (to be).
Er is the present indicative.
The subjunctive is common in subordinate clauses like this when something is being checked, questioned, or presented as uncertain rather than stated as a fact. Since she is checking whether something is true, Icelandic very naturally uses sé.
So:
- hvort ... sé rétt = whether ... is correct
- hvort ... sé á pakkanum = whether ... is on the package
A learner can think of it like this: the sentence is not declaring that these things are true; it is reporting that someone is verifying them.
Why are móttakandans and sendandans in that form?
They are in the genitive singular definite form.
They mean:
- móttakandans = the recipient’s
- sendandans = the sender’s
So:
- heimilisfang móttakandans = the recipient’s address
- símanúmer sendandans = the sender’s phone number
Icelandic often uses the genitive where English uses ’s.
Why does Icelandic say heimilisfang móttakandans instead of putting the possessor first, like the recipient’s address?
Because a very normal Icelandic pattern is:
- noun + genitive possessor
So Icelandic often says the equivalent of:
- address of the recipient
- phone number of the sender
That is why you get:
- heimilisfang móttakandans
- símanúmer sendandans
This is one of the most basic differences between English and Icelandic noun phrases.
Why is there no visible definite article on heimilisfang or símanúmer?
Even though English says the recipient’s address and the sender’s phone number, Icelandic often leaves the main noun without the definite article when it is followed by a definite genitive possessor.
So:
- heimilisfang móttakandans naturally means the recipient’s address
- símanúmer sendandans naturally means the sender’s phone number
The possessor phrase already makes the whole expression specific enough in meaning.
Why is it rétt?
Because rétt is the neuter singular form of the adjective réttur (correct, right).
The noun heimilisfang is neuter singular, and predicate adjectives agree with the noun they describe. So:
- heimilisfang = neuter singular
- therefore rétt = neuter singular
If the noun were masculine or feminine, the adjective form would be different.
Why is it á pakkanum and not just á pakkann or something similar?
Because á can take different cases depending on meaning:
- accusative for motion onto something
- dative for location on something
Here the meaning is location: the phone number is on the package, not goes onto the package. So Icelandic uses the dative:
- á pakkanum = on the package
And pakkanum is the dative singular definite form of pakki.
Why is aftur placed after athugar?
Because Icelandic main clauses normally follow the verb-second pattern.
Here the first element is the subject:
- Hún = first element
So the finite verb comes second:
- athugar = second element
Then other sentence parts follow:
- aftur
So the order is:
- Hún athugar aftur ...
This is very natural Icelandic word order. English learners often expect adverbs to work exactly like in English, but Icelandic word order is more strongly shaped by the verb-second rule.
Could ef be used instead of hvort here?
Normally, hvort is the better choice here.
Use hvort for whether in indirect yes/no questions, especially after verbs like:
- athuga = check
- vita = know
- spyrja = ask
- sjá = see
So athuga hvort ... = check whether ...
Ef is mainly if in conditional sentences, like if it rains. In some informal contexts people may use ef where standard grammar prefers hvort, but in this sentence hvort is the natural and correct choice.
Sign up free — start using our AI language tutor
Start learning IcelandicMaster Icelandic — from Hún athugar aftur hvort heimilisfang móttakandans sé rétt og hvort símanúmer sendandans sé á pakkanum to fluency
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods.
- ✓ Infinitely deep — unlimited vocabulary and grammar
- ✓ Fast-paced — build complex sentences from the start
- ✓ Unforgettable — efficient spaced repetition system
- ✓ AI tutor to answer your grammar questions