Hárgreiðslustofan lokar seint á föstudögum.

It is a compound noun:

• hár = hair
• greiðsla = arranging, dressing, styling
• stofa = room, office, shop, salon

So hárgreiðslustofa means hair salon / hairdresser’s salon.

The form in the sentence is hárgreiðslustofan, with -n added at the end. That final -n is the definite article, so it means the hair salon.

Because Icelandic usually adds the as a suffix to the noun instead of using a separate word like English does.

• hárgreiðslustofa = a hair salon
• hárgreiðslustofan = the hair salon

This is very common in Icelandic. Compare:

• bíll = a car
• bíllinn = the car

So in your sentence, Hárgreiðslustofan is the subject and means the hair salon.

Lokar is the present tense of the verb að loka, meaning to close.

• að loka = to close
• lokar = closes / is closing

In Icelandic, the present tense often changes depending on the subject. Here the subject is hárgreiðslustofan, which is singular, so lokar means closes.

So:

• Hárgreiðslustofan lokar = The hair salon closes

This is just the normal present tense used for habitual actions too, just like in English:

• The salon closes late on Fridays.

Here it means closes — an action.

• lokar = closes
• er lokað = is closed

That is an important difference.

For example:

• Verslunin lokar klukkan sex. = The shop closes at six.
• Verslunin er lokuð. = The shop is closed.

So in your sentence, the meaning is that the salon closes late, not that it is closed late.

Seint means late.

It is the neuter/adverbial form of seinn. In this sentence it functions like an adverb, describing how or when the salon closes:

• lokar seint = closes late

This is similar to how Icelandic often uses adjective forms adverbially.

Compare:

• hann kemur seint = he arrives late
• búðin opnar snemma = the shop opens early

So you can think of seint here simply as the normal way to say late in this kind of sentence.

The preposition á is commonly used for days and recurring times.

• á föstudegi = on Friday
• á föstudögum = on Fridays

The noun föstudagur means Friday. After á in this kind of time expression, Icelandic uses the dative.

So:

• singular dative: föstudegi
• plural dative: föstudögum

That is why the sentence says á föstudögum.

Because the sentence means a repeated habit: on Fridays in general.

Compare:

• á föstudegi = on Friday, on a particular Friday
• á föstudögum = on Fridays, regularly every Friday

So the plural is used because this is describing a general schedule or routine, not one specific Friday.

The basic order here is:

• Hárgreiðslustofan = subject
• lokar = verb
• seint = adverb
• á föstudögum = time expression

So literally:

The hair salon closes late on Fridays.

This is a very natural Icelandic sentence pattern. Icelandic often has verb-second word order in main clauses, but in a simple statement with the subject first, it looks quite similar to English.

Yes. Icelandic often allows a time phrase to come first, and then the finite verb usually comes immediately after it.

For example:

• Á föstudögum lokar hárgreiðslustofan seint.

This still means the same thing: On Fridays, the hair salon closes late.

Notice that when Á föstudögum comes first, lokar comes before hárgreiðslustofan. That is a very important Icelandic pattern.

The ending -um is a very common dative plural ending in Icelandic.

For the noun föstudagur:

• nominative singular: föstudagur
• dative singular: föstudegi
• nominative/accusative plural: föstudagar
• dative plural: föstudögum

So when you see á föstudögum, you can recognize -um as a strong clue that the word is in the dative plural.

Not always. Like many prepositions, á has several uses depending on context.

It can mean things like:

• on
• in
• at
• sometimes other things depending on the expression

But for days and recurring weekday expressions, á is often best translated as on:

• á mánudegi = on Monday
• á laugardögum = on Saturdays

So in this sentence, á is naturally translated as on.

You would remove the definite article from the noun:

• Hárgreiðslustofa lokar seint á föstudögum.

That would mean A hair salon closes late on Fridays or possibly Hair salons close late on Fridays, depending on context, though that exact sentence may sound a little more generic or less natural without additional context.

The key contrast is:

• hárgreiðslustofa = a hair salon
• hárgreiðslustofan = the hair salon

It is long because Icelandic, like German and other Germanic languages, often forms compound nouns by joining smaller words together.

So instead of writing something like hair styling salon as separate words, Icelandic combines them into one word:

• hár + greiðslu + stofa

That is completely normal in Icelandic.

A rough pronunciation guide for English speakers would be something like:

• HAUR-grayth-slu-stoh-fan

But this is only approximate. A few important points:

• á is pronounced differently from plain a
• ð is like the th in this
• stress usually falls on the first syllable in Icelandic words

So the main stress is on HÁR-.