Hann speglar sig stutt í glugganum og lagar skyrtuna sína.

It is the verb að spegla sig, which means to look at oneself in a mirror or reflective surface, to check one’s reflection, or to glance at oneself.

So Hann speglar sig is not just he mirrors in a literal English sense. It means he is looking at his own reflection.

Sig is the 3rd-person reflexive pronoun. It is used when the object refers back to the subject of the clause.

Here, the subject is hann and the person being looked at is the same person, so Icelandic uses sig:

• Hann speglar sig = He looks at himself

If you used hann instead, it would suggest he is looking at him, meaning some other male person, not himself.

Here sig is in the accusative, because it is the direct object of speglar.

You can think of the structure like this:

• hann = subject
• speglar = verb
• sig = direct object

So the verb að spegla sig takes an accusative reflexive object.

Here stutt means briefly, for a short moment, or quickly in the sense of duration.

Even though stuttur / stutt / stutt is also an adjective meaning short, Icelandic often uses the neuter singular form adverbially. So here it functions like an adverb.

So:

• speglar sig stutt = looks at himself briefly

Glugganum is dative singular definite of gluggi.

The preposition í can take either:

• accusative for motion into something
• dative for location in something

Here there is no movement into the window; it is a static location/reference, so Icelandic uses the dative:

• í glugganum = in the window

In context, this really means in the window’s reflection or using the window as a mirror.

Yes, literally it does. But idiomatically it means he is looking at his reflection in the window, meaning in the glass.

English often says in the window for reflections too, so the idea is very similar: he is using the window as a reflective surface.

Lagar is the 3rd-person singular present tense of að laga.

This verb often means:

• to fix
• to adjust
• to straighten
• to arrange

In this sentence, with skyrtuna, it means something like:

• adjusts his shirt
• straightens his shirt

So it is not necessarily repairs in a mechanical sense; it is more about tidying or fixing the way it sits.

Because Icelandic uses the reflexive possessive sinn / sín / sitt when the possessor is the same as the subject of the clause.

Here, the subject is hann, and it is his own shirt, so Icelandic says:

• skyrtuna sína = his own shirt

If you said:

• skyrtuna hans

that would usually mean his shirt belonging to some other male person, not the subject himself.

This is a very important Icelandic distinction.

Because sinn changes form to agree with the noun it belongs to, not with the owner.

The noun here is skyrtuna, which is:

• feminine
• singular
• accusative
• definite

So the matching form is sína.

That means:

• sinn = masculine
• sína = feminine
• sitt = neuter

Even though the owner is hann (he), the form of the possessive is chosen by the noun skyrta, not by the gender of the owner.

That is a very normal Icelandic word order. Possessive pronouns often come after the noun, and the noun is commonly definite as well.

So Icelandic naturally says things like:

• bíllinn minn = my car
• húsið okkar = our house
• skyrtuna sína = his/her own shirt

To an English speaker, this can feel like the shirt his, but in Icelandic it is standard.

They are both in the 3rd-person singular present tense, matching the subject hann.

So:

• hann speglar = he looks/checks himself
• hann lagar = he adjusts

This -ar ending is very common with many Icelandic verbs in the present tense for ég / þú / hann-hún-það, depending on the verb class and pattern.

Because the second verb phrase is coordinated with og and has the same subject.

So:

• Hann speglar sig stutt í glugganum og lagar skyrtuna sína

means:

• He looks briefly at himself in the window and adjusts his shirt

Icelandic does not need to repeat hann here, although it could be repeated for emphasis or clarity in some contexts.

Yes, that is a very helpful way to read it:

1. Hann speglar sig stutt í glugganum
2. og lagar skyrtuna sína

So the structure is:

• He briefly checks his reflection in the window
• and adjusts his shirt

Breaking long Icelandic sentences into chunks like this is often a good strategy for learners.