Hún ætlar að lita hárið sitt í dag.

Ætla að + infinitive is a very common Icelandic way to express intention or a future plan.

So hún ætlar að lita... means that she plans/intends/is going to do it. It is often one of the first future-like patterns learners meet in Icelandic.

It is slightly more intentional than just using the present tense by itself.

Here að is the infinitive marker, like English to in to dye.

After ætla, you normally get:

ætla + að + infinitive

So:

• hún ætlar að lita
• ég ætla að fara
• við ætlum að borða

In this sentence, lita is the infinitive form of the verb.

Hár is the basic noun form, while hárið is the definite form: the hair.

Icelandic often uses the definite form where English would simply say her hair. So hárið sitt is a very natural way to say her hair.

Also, when talking about the hair on someone’s head, Icelandic commonly uses the singular noun hár/hárið, even though English speakers may think of hair as a mass noun.

It is in the accusative, because it is the direct object of lita.

She is doing the action to the hair, so the noun phrase hárið sitt is the object.

A useful detail: with hár in the singular definite form, the nominative and accusative look the same:

• nominative: hárið
• accusative: hárið

So the case is not obvious from the form alone, but its role in the sentence shows it is accusative here.

Because sitt is the reflexive possessive. It is used when the possessor is the same person as the subject of the clause.

Here the subject is hún, and the hair belongs to that same person, so Icelandic uses sitt.

• Hún litar hárið sitt = she is dyeing her own hair
• Hún litar hárið hennar = she is dyeing another woman’s hair, or at least the wording points away from reflexive meaning

This is one of the most important differences from English, because English uses her for both ideas.

That word order is very normal in Icelandic.

With a noun in the definite form, the possessive often comes after the noun:

• bíllinn minn = my car
• húsið okkar = our house
• hárið sitt = her own hair

So although English puts the possessive first, Icelandic very often uses:

noun + definite ending + possessive

That is why hárið sitt sounds natural here.

Because sinn/sín/sitt must agree with the thing possessed, not with the person who owns it.

The possessed noun here is hár, which is:

• neuter
• singular
• accusative here

The neuter singular form of the reflexive possessive is sitt.

So even though hún is feminine, the possessive does not become feminine for that reason. It matches hárið, not hún.

Yes in meaning, but not in the same way as English.

Icelandic does not have a separate future tense ending like many languages do. Instead, it often uses:

• the present tense with context, or
• a construction like ætla að for plans and intentions

So hún ætlar að lita hárið sitt í dag is future in sense, even though the finite verb ætlar is grammatically present tense.

Í dag is a time expression, and putting it at the end is a very normal, neutral choice.

Yes, it can be moved:

• Hún ætlar að lita hárið sitt í dag.
• Í dag ætlar hún að lita hárið sitt.

The second version gives í dag more emphasis.

One important thing to remember is that Icelandic main clauses follow the verb-second pattern. So if you move í dag to the front, the finite verb ætlar still comes next:

• Í dag ætlar hún...

not

• Í dag hún ætlar...

No. Lita is a broader verb meaning to color, dye, tint, stain, depending on context.

So it can be used with different things, not just hair. In this sentence, the object hárið makes it clear that it means to dye/color hair.

Yes, sometimes Icelandic simply uses the present tense for future events, especially when the context already makes the time clear.

For example, a sentence with í dag can already point to a planned future event. But ætlar að adds a clear sense of intention or plan, so it is very natural here.

Using ætlar að makes it sound more like: she has decided or is planning to do it.