Ég ætla að senda bréf til frænku minnar á morgun.

Ætla að + infinitive is a very common way to talk about an intention or near-future action in Icelandic.

• ég ætla að senda = I am going to send / I intend to send
• ég sendi usually means I send or I sent, depending on context

So ætla að is doing the job of expressing a planned future action.

Here að is the infinitive marker, like to in English.

• senda = send
• að senda = to send

After ætla, Icelandic normally uses að + infinitive:

• ég ætla að fara = I’m going to go
• ég ætla að lesa = I’m going to read

So in this sentence, að links ætla to the verb senda.

Because bréf is a neuter noun whose nominative and accusative singular forms are the same.

In this sentence, bréf is the direct object of senda, so it is in the accusative case. But the form happens to be identical to the dictionary form:

• nominative: bréf
• accusative: bréf

This is very common in Icelandic, especially with many neuter nouns.

Because the preposition til requires the genitive case.

The basic noun is:

• frænka = female cousin / aunt / female relative depending on context

But after til, it changes to the genitive form:

• til frænku = to my cousin / to my aunt

The possessive also has to match the noun in case, number, and gender:

• mín → nominative feminine singular
• minnar → genitive feminine singular

So:

• frænka mín = my cousin as a subject form
• til frænku minnar = to my cousin after til

In Icelandic, possessives like minn, mín, mitt often come after the noun, especially in neutral everyday phrasing.

So Icelandic commonly says:

• frænka mín = my cousin
• húsið mitt = my house
• vinur minn = my friend

This is one of the normal ways Icelandic expresses possession. English usually puts my before the noun, but Icelandic often places the possessive after it.

Minnar is the genitive feminine singular form of the possessive minn.

It changes because it must agree with frænku, which is feminine singular and here appears after til, so it is genitive.

A few useful forms are:

• masculine nominative singular: minn
• feminine nominative singular: mín
• neuter nominative singular: mitt
• feminine genitive singular: minnar

So til frænku minnar literally has both words marked for the same grammatical environment.

No. Frænka can mean different kinds of female relatives depending on context, especially female cousin or aunt.

So the exact meaning depends on the situation. Icelandic family words do not always match English family words one-to-one.

In this sentence, if the meaning has already been given to the learner, then that context tells you which relative is meant.

Yes, á often means on, but in expressions of time Icelandic frequently uses fixed prepositional phrases that do not translate word-for-word.

• á morgun = tomorrow
• literally something like on morning / on the morrow, but you should learn it as a set phrase

So even though á often corresponds to English on, here the whole expression simply means tomorrow.

Yes, Icelandic word order is fairly flexible, especially with time expressions.

The sentence as given is very natural:

• Ég ætla að senda bréf til frænku minnar á morgun.

But you could also move the time phrase for emphasis, for example:

• Á morgun ætla ég að senda bréf til frænku minnar.

That puts extra focus on tomorrow.

So the original version is neutral and natural, but other orders are possible.

Yes, that is a very normal Icelandic pattern.

• senda bréf = send a letter
• til frænku minnar = to my cousin

So the structure is:

• subject: Ég
• verb phrase: ætla að senda
• direct object: bréf
• prepositional phrase showing destination/recipient: til frænku minnar
• time phrase: á morgun

This is a straightforward and natural order.

Yes, that is also possible in Icelandic.

You can often express the recipient of senda in two ways:

1. with til + genitive

   • senda bréf til frænku minnar

2. with an indirect object, often in the dative

   • senda frænku minni bréf

Both can mean send my cousin a letter / send a letter to my cousin, though the exact feel and usage can depend on style and context.

For a learner, the important point is that til is not the only possible way to express the recipient.

Ég means I, and the é is a separate vowel letter in Icelandic, not just an accented version of e for decoration.

It is pronounced roughly like yeh-g with a clear y-like start for many English speakers, though the exact Icelandic sound is more precise than that rough guide.

The capital letter is used simply because it is the first word of the sentence:

• ég = lowercase
• Ég = capitalized at the start

So é is part of the normal spelling of the word, not optional.

Here bréf is indefinite: a letter, not the letter.

In Icelandic, definiteness is often shown by a suffixed article:

• bréf = a letter / letter
• bréfið = the letter

So:

• Ég ætla að senda bréf... = I’m going to send a letter...
• Ég ætla að senda bréfið... = I’m going to send the letter...

The sentence uses the indefinite form because it is talking about a letter, not a specific already-identified one.