Ég athuga heimildina aftur áður en ég sendi ritgerðina.

I check the source again before I send the essay.

Breakdown of Ég athuga heimildina aftur áður en ég sendi ritgerðina.

• ég: I
• aftur: again
• áður en: before
• senda: to send

Questions & Answers about Ég athuga heimildina aftur áður en ég sendi ritgerðina.

Why are heimildina and ritgerðina in that form?

Both are direct objects, so they are in the accusative case.

• athuga takes a direct object: athuga heimildina
• senda takes a direct object: senda ritgerðina

Both nouns are also definite:

• heimild → heimildina = the source/reference
• ritgerð → ritgerðina = the essay/paper

So the ending is showing two things at once:

1. the noun is definite
2. the noun is accusative singular

Why do both nouns end in -ina?

Because both heimild and ritgerð are feminine singular nouns in the accusative definite form.

A very rough breakdown is:

• heimild = source/reference
• heimildin = the source/reference
• heimildina = the source/reference, as a direct object

And the same pattern works here:

• ritgerð
• ritgerðin
• ritgerðina

In Icelandic, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun rather than written as a separate word like English the.