Hjúkrunarfræðingurinn snertir ennið á sjúklingnum og biður hann að bíða í smástund.

Because Icelandic likes compound nouns, and it usually attaches the definite article directly to the noun.

• hjúkrunarfræðingur = nurse
• hjúkrunarfræðingurinn = the nurse

So this word is basically:

• hjúkrunarfræðingur
  • -inn / -urinn = the nurse

The ending changes according to gender, number, and case. Here it is the masculine singular nominative form, because hjúkrunarfræðingurinn is the subject of the sentence.

Snertir is the 3rd person singular present tense of snerta, meaning touch.

So:

• ég snerti = I touch
• þú snertir = you touch
• hann / hún / það snertir = he / she / it touches

In this sentence, the subject is hjúkrunarfræðingurinn, so the verb is in 3rd person singular: snertir.

Ennið is the definite singular form of enni, which means forehead.

• enni = a forehead
• ennið = the forehead

It is the direct object of snertir, so it is in the accusative. For this neuter noun, the nominative and accusative singular look the same, so you still see ennið.

This is a very common Icelandic pattern, especially with body parts. Icelandic often uses:

[body part] + á + dative

to mean whose body part it is in the physical situation.

So ennið á sjúklingnum literally looks like the forehead on the patient, but idiomatically it means the patient's forehead.

This construction is especially natural when talking about the body in a concrete, physical way. A genitive-style possessive can exist in Icelandic too, but with body parts this á + dative pattern is extremely common.

Because á here takes the dative.

The noun sjúklingur means patient, and sjúklingnum is its dative singular definite form:

• sjúklingur = a patient
• sjúklingnum = the patient in the dative

Here á means on, in a static sense, not movement onto something. That is why the dative is used.

Because the verb biðja takes the person being asked in the accusative.

The pattern is:

biðja einhvern að gera eitthvað = to ask someone to do something

So in this sentence:

• hann = him in the accusative
• honum would be dative, which does not fit this verb pattern

That is why biður hann að bíða means asks him to wait.

Here að is the infinitive marker, like English to.

So:

• bíða = wait
• að bíða = to wait

After biðja, Icelandic normally uses að + infinitive to say what someone is being asked to do:

• biðja einhvern að bíða = ask someone to wait

So biður hann að bíða means asks him to wait.

Í smástund means for a little while or for a short moment.

This may feel surprising to an English speaker, because English uses for, but Icelandic often uses í in time expressions of duration.

• smástund = a short while / a little moment
• í smástund = for a little while

In this kind of expression, í takes the accusative, so you get smástund here.

Yes. Icelandic does not have a separate mandatory progressive form like English is touching or is asking.

The ordinary present tense can cover both:

• general or habitual action
• action happening right now

So snertir can mean touches or, depending on context, is touching. The same is true of biður.

Because the same subject continues for both verbs.

The sentence structure is basically:

• The nurse touches ...
• and asks ...

Icelandic, like English, normally does not repeat the subject when two coordinated verbs share it. So hjúkrunarfræðingurinn is understood as the subject of both snertir and biður.