Hún velur annað lýsingarorð ef það fyrsta hljómar of sterkt.

Hún is the subject pronoun meaning she. It is in the nominative case, because it is the one doing the action.

• Hún velur ... = She chooses ...

If you used hana, that would be the accusative form, and it would usually mean her as an object, not she as the subject.

Velur is the present tense, 3rd person singular form of the verb velja (to choose).

So:

• ég vel = I choose
• þú velur = you choose
• hún velur = she chooses

In this sentence, hún velur means she chooses.

A learner might expect something closer to the infinitive velja, but Icelandic verbs change form depending on person and number.

Annað here means another or a different.

So:

• annað lýsingarorð = another adjective / a different adjective

It can sometimes also mean second, depending on context, but here the meaning is clearly another one.

Grammatically, annað is in the neuter singular form, because it agrees with lýsingarorð, which is a neuter noun.

Because lýsingarorð is simply a noun whose grammatical gender is neuter. In Icelandic, every noun has a grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter.

So when you modify lýsingarorð, the words around it must match that gender when necessary:

• annað lýsingarorð

Here both parts fit the neuter singular pattern.

This grammatical gender does not mean that an adjective is somehow “neuter” in meaning; it is just how the noun behaves grammatically.

It is the direct object of velur, so it is in the accusative case.

• Hún velur ... = She chooses ...

The thing being chosen is the object, so it takes the accusative.

In this phrase, the accusative looks the same as the nominative because it is neuter singular:

• annað lýsingarorð can look the same in nominative and accusative

That is very common with neuter nouns and adjectives in Icelandic.

Ef means if. It introduces a conditional subordinate clause:

• ef það fyrsta hljómar of sterkt = if the first one sounds too strong

So the sentence has two parts:

1. Hún velur annað lýsingarorð
2. ef það fyrsta hljómar of sterkt

Together: she chooses another adjective if the first one sounds too strong.

This is because ef introduces a subordinate clause, and Icelandic word order in subordinate clauses is often more straightforward than in main clauses.

Here you get:

• ef það fyrsta hljómar of sterkt

with the subject before the verb.

A useful comparison:

• Main clause: Það fyrsta hljómar of sterkt.
• After ef: ef það fyrsta hljómar of sterkt

Unlike main-clause V2 patterns, subordinate clauses after words like ef do not force the same kind of inversion.

Það fyrsta means the first one.

Here, það is a neuter form meaning something like that/the one, and fyrsta is first.

Together they refer back to the previously mentioned adjective:

• annað lýsingarorð = another adjective
• það fyrsta = the first one

So instead of repeating lýsingarorð, Icelandic uses það fyrsta to mean the first one.

Because Icelandic often uses a pronoun/article-like word with an ordinal to mean the first one, the second one, and so on.

So:

• það fyrsta = the first one
• það annað = the second/other one

Using það helps turn fyrsta into a standalone noun phrase, rather than just leaving it as an adjective with no noun stated.

It is a natural way to refer back to something already mentioned.

Hljómar is the present tense, 3rd person singular of hljóma, which means to sound.

So:

• það fyrsta hljómar ... = the first one sounds ...

Like velur, it changes form to match the subject:

• ég hljóma
• þú hljómar
• það/hún/hann hljómar

In this sentence, the subject is singular, so hljómar is singular too.

Because sterkt is a predicate adjective agreeing with the subject það fyrsta, which is neuter singular.

Compare:

• hann er sterkur = he is strong
• hún er sterk = she is strong
• það er sterkt = it is strong

In the sentence:

• það fyrsta hljómar of sterkt

the thing that sounds strong is það fyrsta, which is grammatically neuter singular, so the adjective must also be neuter singular: sterkt.

No. Of means too, while mjög means very.

So:

• mjög sterkt = very strong
• of sterkt = too strong

That is an important difference. In this sentence, the idea is not just that the first adjective sounds strong, but that it sounds excessively strong.

Here it means another or a different one.

Even though annar/önnur/annað can sometimes have a second/other sense, the context here makes another adjective the natural reading:

• She chooses another adjective
• if the first one sounds too strong

If the sentence were about numbering things in sequence, second might be more likely, but that is not the case here.

Yes, in some contexts Icelandic can leave out a repeated noun if it is clear from context. But in this sentence, annað lýsingarorð is helpful because it states clearly what is being chosen.

Then the second half avoids repetition by saying:

• það fyrsta = the first one

So the sentence first names the noun, then refers back to it more briefly.

That is very natural style.

The cluster hlj- can look difficult to English speakers. In modern Icelandic pronunciation, the h is not pronounced like a full English h before the lj in the way spelling might suggest; the whole beginning is part of a specifically Icelandic sound pattern.

For learners, the important thing is:

• don’t try to pronounce every letter exactly as in English
• listen to native audio if possible
• treat hljó- as one sound group rather than sounding out h-l-j separately

This is a pronunciation issue more than a grammar issue, but it is a very common learner question.

Icelandic does not use a separate indefinite article like English a/an.

So where English says:

• an adjective
• another adjective

Icelandic simply says:

• lýsingarorð
• annað lýsingarorð

If Icelandic wants definiteness, it often expresses it in other ways, often with a suffixed definite article or with context. But there is no separate word exactly like English a/an.

Not really. In English, sound usually takes an adjective:

• sounds strong
• sounds strange
• sounds good

Icelandic works similarly here:

• hljómar sterkt
• hljómar of sterkt

So sterkt is best understood as an adjective, not an adverb like strongly.

That is why it agrees with the subject in gender and number.

A useful breakdown is:

• Hún = she
• velur = chooses
• annað lýsingarorð = another adjective
• ef = if
• það fyrsta = the first one
• hljómar = sounds
• of sterkt = too strong

So the pattern is:

Subject + verb + object + subordinate clause

That makes it a good example of how Icelandic combines ordinary present-tense narration with an if-clause.