Hún leitar að bangsanum sínum undir teppinu.

She looks for her teddy bear under the blanket.

Breakdown of Hún leitar að bangsanum sínum undir teppinu.

• hún: she
• undir: under
• sinn: her
• leita að: to look for

Questions & Answers about Hún leitar að bangsanum sínum undir teppinu.

What does each word in Hún leitar að bangsanum sínum undir teppinu do?

A word-by-word breakdown is:

• Hún = she
• leitar = looks / is looking / searches
• að bangsanum sínum = for her own teddy bear
• undir teppinu = under the blanket

So grammatically, it is:

• subject: Hún
• verb: leitar
• object phrase with the verb: að bangsanum sínum
• location phrase: undir teppinu

Why is leitar translated as is looking when it looks like a simple present form?

Because Icelandic often uses the simple present where English uses either:

• she looks for
• she is looking for

So Hún leitar can mean either one, depending on context.

If you want to make the ongoing action extra explicit, Icelandic can also say:

• Hún er að leita að bangsanum sínum.

That is closer to English She is looking for her teddy bear.

What is að doing here?

Here, að is part of the fixed verb expression leita að, which means to look for or to search for.

So you should learn:

• leita að einhverju = look for something

In this sentence, að is not the infinitive marker to. It belongs with the verb.