Breakdown of Eftir fundinn skrifaði hún stutta fundargerð og sendi hana til allra í hópnum.
Questions & Answers about Eftir fundinn skrifaði hún stutta fundargerð og sendi hana til allra í hópnum.
Why is it fundinn and not fundur?
Fundur is the dictionary form, the nominative singular, meaning meeting. In this sentence, after eftir in the sense of after, the noun appears in the accusative singular, and because it means the meeting, it also takes the suffixed definite article.
So the steps are:
- fundur = meeting
- accusative singular: fund
- accusative singular definite: fundinn
That is why the sentence has Eftir fundinn.
Why is skrifaði before hún?
Because Icelandic normally follows the V2 rule, meaning the finite verb tends to come in the second position of a main clause.
Here, the sentence starts with the time phrase Eftir fundinn. Once that comes first, the finite verb skrifaði must come next, and the subject hún comes after it:
- Eftir fundinn — first element
- skrifaði — finite verb in second position
- hún — subject
If the sentence started with the subject instead, you would get:
- Hún skrifaði ...
What form is skrifaði?
Skrifaði is the past tense of skrifa, meaning to write.
In this sentence, it means wrote. With hún, the phrase skrifaði hún means she wrote.
A useful thing to notice is that Icelandic past tense forms are not always different for every person. For example:
- ég skrifaði = I wrote
- hún skrifaði = she wrote
Why is it stutta fundargerð?
Because fundargerð is the direct object of skrifaði, it is in the accusative singular. The adjective stuttur must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
Here is the agreement:
- fundargerð is feminine
- it is singular
- it is accusative
So the adjective becomes stutta.
That gives:
- stutta fundargerð = a short meeting report / short minutes
What exactly does fundargerð mean?
Fundargerð usually means meeting minutes or a written record/report of a meeting.
It is a compound word:
- fundur = meeting
- gerð = making, document, record
So it is basically the written record produced from a meeting. In many contexts, fundargerð is the standard word for official meeting minutes.
Why does the sentence use hana?
Hana refers back to fundargerð.
Since fundargerð is a feminine singular noun, the pronoun replacing it must also be feminine singular. And because it is the direct object of sendi, it appears in the accusative form:
- hún = she
- hana = her / it, accusative feminine singular
So:
- sendi hana = sent it
Here, it means the meeting report / the minutes.
Why is there no hún after og?
Because the subject is the same in both parts of the sentence, Icelandic often leaves it out in the second coordinated clause.
So:
- skrifaði hún stutta fundargerð og sendi hana ...
means that the understood subject of sendi is still hún.
English often does the same thing:
- She wrote the minutes and sent them ...
There is no need to repeat she unless you want extra emphasis.
Why is it til allra?
Because the preposition til takes the genitive case.
The word allir changes form in the genitive plural:
- nominative plural: allir
- genitive plural: allra
So:
- til allra = to everyone / to all
This is a very common pattern in Icelandic: once you learn which case a preposition requires, the following word has to match it.
How does í hópnum work?
The preposition í can take different cases depending on meaning:
- accusative for movement into
- dative for location in
Here the meaning is location, not movement. The people are already in the group, so Icelandic uses the dative:
- hópur = group
- dative singular definite: hópnum
So:
- í hópnum = in the group
Why does Icelandic attach the to the end of words like fundinn and hópnum?
Because Icelandic usually expresses the definite article as a suffix on the noun, rather than as a separate word like English the.
For example:
- hópur = a group
- hópurinn = the group
And when the noun changes case, the article changes too, which is why you see forms like:
- fundinn
- hópnum
So instead of a separate word before the noun, Icelandic builds definiteness directly into the noun ending.
Is the word order of the whole sentence natural?
Yes, it is very natural.
The sentence begins with a time phrase, which is a very common way to start a sentence in Icelandic:
- Eftir fundinn — after the meeting
Then the verb comes second because of the V2 rule:
- skrifaði
Then comes the subject:
- hún
So the structure is completely normal and idiomatic. It highlights when the action happened first, which is often useful in narration.
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