Barnið leggur kalda hönd á kinnina.

In Icelandic, the is usually attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word.

• barnið = barna? No — it is barn
  • the definite ending -ið → the child
• kinnina = kinn
  • the feminine accusative definite ending -ina → the cheek

So Icelandic often expresses definiteness with a suffix rather than a separate word like English the.

No. Barn is simply a neuter noun in Icelandic. That is grammatical gender, not biological sex.

So:

• barnið means the child
• the child could be a boy or a girl
• the noun is still grammatically neuter

This is very common in Icelandic and other languages with grammatical gender.

Here is the breakdown:

• barnið
  Dictionary form: barn
  Role: subject
  Form: neuter singular definite, nominative

• leggur
  Dictionary form: leggja
  Role: verb
  Form: present tense, 3rd person singular

• kalda
  Dictionary form: kaldur
  Role: adjective modifying hönd
  Form: feminine singular accusative

• hönd
  Dictionary form: hönd
  Role: direct object
  Form: feminine singular accusative

• á
  Role: preposition
  Here it means something like onto/on

• kinnina
  Dictionary form: kinn
  Role: object of the preposition á
  Form: feminine singular definite, accusative

Because the adjective must agree with hönd in:

• gender: feminine
• number: singular
• case: accusative

The noun hönd is the direct object, so it is in the accusative. The adjective has to match that, giving kalda.

A useful comparison:

• köld hönd = a cold hand as subject, nominative
• kalda hönd = a cold hand as direct object, accusative

So in this sentence, kalda is exactly the form you expect.

Because leggja takes a direct object, and that object is in the accusative case.

For this noun:

• nominative: hönd
• accusative: hönd
• dative: hendi
• genitive: handar

So hendi would be dative, but here the sentence needs accusative, so hönd is correct.

This is also a good reminder that hönd is an irregular noun.

Because á can take either the accusative or the dative, depending on meaning.

• accusative after á: movement toward or onto something
• dative after á: location on something

Here, the hand is being moved onto the cheek, so Icelandic uses the accusative:

• á kinnina = onto the cheek

If you were describing location instead, you would use dative:

• Höndin er á kinninni = The hand is on the cheek

This accusative-versus-dative contrast is very important with Icelandic prepositions.

Because the sentence is introducing a cold hand, but referring to the cheek as a specific cheek in the situation.

That mix is perfectly normal in Icelandic, just as it can be in English:

• a cold hand
• the cheek

So the sentence does not need both nouns to be either definite or indefinite. Each noun is marked according to how specific it is in context.

Icelandic often leaves possession unstated when it is obvious from context, especially with body parts.

So á kinnina can naturally be understood as something like:

• on its cheek
• on his cheek
• on her cheek
• or simply on the cheek

The exact interpretation depends on context.

If Icelandic wants to make the possession explicit, it can do so, for example with:

• á kinnina á sér

English often requires a possessive where Icelandic does not.

Leggur is the present tense, 3rd person singular form of leggja.

A few present-tense forms are:

• ég legg = I lay / put
• þú leggur = you lay / put
• hann/hún/það leggur = he/she/it lays / puts

In this sentence, barnið is singular, so the verb is leggur.

Because leggja often means lay, place, or put down, especially when something comes to rest against a surface.

That makes it very natural with a phrase like:

• leggja hönd á kinnina = place a hand on the cheek

A more general verb like setja can also mean put, but leggja is especially suitable when something is being laid or placed against something.

So this choice sounds natural and idiomatic.

This is the normal, neutral order:

• subject: Barnið
• verb: leggur
• object: kalda hönd
• prepositional phrase: á kinnina

So the structure is basically:

Subject + Verb + Object + Prepositional phrase

However, Icelandic also has the verb-second pattern in main clauses, so other word orders are possible if something is moved to the front for emphasis. But the version here is the most straightforward and natural one for a learner.

A rough English-friendly approximation is:

BAR-nith LEGG-ur KAL-ta hœnt ow KINN-i-na

A few notes:

• ð in barnið is like the th in the
• g in leggur is softer than a hard English g
• ld in kalda is often pronounced more like lt
• ö in hönd has no exact English equivalent
• á sounds like ow in cow

As always, this is only an approximation. Real Icelandic pronunciation is a bit different from any English spelling.