Breakdown of Liðsfélagi hennar sagði að markið var fallegt.
vera
to be
fallegur
beautiful
segja
to say
að
that
Questions & Answers about Liðsfélagi hennar sagði að markið var fallegt.
Why does liðsfélagi end in -i? Is that the normal word for teammate?
Yes. Liðsfélagi means teammate.
It is a compound:
- lið = team
- félagi = companion, member, associate
So liðsfélagi is literally something like team-companion.
The -i ending is normal here because félagi is a masculine noun of a common declension pattern. In this sentence, liðsfélagi is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence.
So:
- Liðsfélagi hennar = her teammate
Why is hennar placed after the noun instead of before it?
That is a very common Icelandic pattern.
In English, we say:
- her teammate
But in Icelandic, possessive words like hennar often come after the noun:
- liðsfélagi hennar = her teammate
This is completely normal Icelandic word order.
So:
- maðurinn hennar = her husband / her man
- bíllinn hennar = her car
- liðsfélagi hennar = her teammate
English learners often want to put the possessive first, but Icelandic usually does not do that with forms like hennar.
What exactly is hennar here?