Hún segir að þessi hlustunaræfing fái hana til að átta sig betur á því hvernig litlar breytingar á sérhljóðum geta breytt allri orðmyndinni.

Fái is the present subjunctive of fá.

In a sentence like Hún segir að ..., Icelandic often uses the subjunctive in the subordinate clause when reporting what someone says, thinks, believes, etc. That is why you get:

• Hún segir að þessi hlustunaræfing fái hana til ...

rather than the more straightforward indicative fær.

A simple way to think about it is:

• fær = plain statement of fact
• fái = reported or dependent statement, often in indirect speech

So fái here is a very normal reported-speech form.

This is a very useful Icelandic pattern.

fá einhvern til að + infinitive means:

• to get someone to do something
• to make someone do something
• to cause someone to do something

So:

• þessi hlustunaræfing fái hana til að átta sig ... means
• this listening exercise makes her realize ...

Here the parts are:

• fá = get / make
• hana = her
• til að átta sig = to realize

Hana is the accusative form of hún.

That is because hana is the object of fá in the pattern fá einhvern til að ...

Compare:

• hún = she
• hana = her

So in this sentence:

• Hún segir ... = She says ...
• ... fái hana til að ... = ... makes her ...

Even if hana refers to the same person as hún, Icelandic still uses the object form because the grammar requires it.

Átta sig á is a fixed expression meaning:

• to realize
• to understand
• to become aware of

It is reflexive, so it uses sig.

That means you learn it as a unit:

• átta sig á einhverju = realize something / become aware of something

In this sentence:

• að átta sig betur á því ... = to understand better / realize better ...

Why sig? Because the verb is used reflexively. English does not do this here, but Icelandic does.

This is another very common Icelandic structure.

Because the expression is átta sig á einhverju, the preposition á needs an object. When the “thing” being realized is actually a whole clause, Icelandic often inserts því before that clause:

• átta sig á því hvernig ...
• literally: realize oneself of that how ...

Natural English would just say:

• realize how ...

So því acts like a placeholder for the following clause hvernig litlar breytingar ...

This is extremely common in Icelandic after prepositions.

Because betur is an adverb, not an adjective.

It comes from vel:

• vel = well
• betur = better

Since it modifies the verbal idea átta sig (realize / understand), Icelandic uses the adverb:

• átta sig betur á ... = understand better / realize more clearly ...

English does the same:

• not good understand
• but understand better

Because æfing is a feminine noun, singular, nominative here.

The phrase is the subject of fái, so it must be nominative:

• þessi = this, feminine singular nominative
• hlustunaræfing = listening exercise

If the noun had a different gender or case, the form of þessi would change.

So the agreement is:

• þessi
  • feminine singular noun
• hlustunaræfing

It is a compound noun:

• hlustun = listening
• æfing = exercise

The first part appears in a linking/genitive form:

• hlustunar-

So:

• hlustunaræfing = listening exercise

This kind of compound is extremely common in Icelandic. English often uses separate words, but Icelandic very often combines them into one word.

Because litlar breytingar is the subject of geta.

The noun breyting is feminine, and here it is plural nominative:

• breytingar = changes
• litlar = small, feminine plural nominative

So the phrase means:

• small changes

It is nominative because those changes are the ones that can change the word form.

Because breytingar á einhverju means changes in something / changes to something, and after this á, Icelandic uses the dative.

So:

• sérhljóð = vowel
• sérhljóðum = dative plural
• breytingar á sérhljóðum = changes in vowels

A native English speaker may expect something more literal like of vowels, but Icelandic naturally uses á here.

After geta, Icelandic normally uses the verbal form called the supine rather than the plain infinitive.

So:

• breyta = infinitive, to change
• breytt = the form used after geta here

That is why the sentence has:

• geta breytt

This means can change, not a past tense.

This is a very important pattern to get used to, because English speakers often expect the ordinary infinitive after a modal verb.

Because the verb breyta takes a dative object.

You do not breyta eitthvað in standard Icelandic here; you breyta einhverju.

So:

• orðmyndinni is dative singular definite
• allri agrees with it in gender, number, and case

That gives:

• allri orðmyndinni = the whole word form

This is a classic Icelandic case pattern that learners need to memorize with the verb:

• breyta einhverju = change something

Orðmynd literally means word form.

Depending on context, it can refer to:

• the form/shape of a word
• an inflected form of a word
• the way the word appears or is realized

In this sentence, the idea is that even small vowel changes can alter the overall form of the word. So allri orðmyndinni means something like:

• the entire word form
• the whole shape/form of the word

This is an embedded clause introduced by hvernig.

In English, it means:

• how small changes in vowels can change ...

In Icelandic, the subject comes before the finite verb here:

• hvernig = how
• litlar breytingar á sérhljóðum = small changes in vowels
• geta = can
• breytt allri orðmyndinni = change the whole word form

So the order is very natural for a subordinate clause. It is not the main-clause verb-second pattern you often see in Icelandic statements.

In this sentence, sig belongs to the infinitive phrase að átta sig.

The understood subject of that infinitive is the same as hana in fái hana til að ... So the person doing the realizing is her.

In other words:

• the exercise makes her realize ...
• therefore the reflexive pronoun is sig

So structurally, sig is tied to the subject of átta sig, and that subject is understood from hana.

Sometimes learners want to do that because English would simply say realize how ..., but Icelandic strongly prefers átta sig á því hvernig ...

The reason is that átta sig á normally wants an object after á, and því fills that role before the clause begins.

So:

• more natural: átta sig á því hvernig ...
• less idiomatic for learners to imitate: átta sig á hvernig ...

As a rule, it is safest to learn and use the full pattern:

• átta sig á því að ...
• átta sig á því hvernig ...
• átta sig á því hvað ...