Það er ómögulegt að lesa skjáinn þegar sólin skín beint á hann.

Here það means it, not that.

In this sentence, Það er ... works like English It is ... in It is impossible to read the screen. This það is a dummy subject: it fills the subject position, but it does not refer to a specific thing.

So:

• Það er ómögulegt ... = It is impossible ...

You will see this pattern a lot in Icelandic with statements about situations, weather, time, and general facts.

Because ómögulegt is the neuter singular form of the adjective ómögulegur.

When Icelandic uses an adjective in a structure like Það er ... að ... or when the adjective describes an entire clause or situation, the adjective usually appears in the neuter singular.

So:

• ómögulegur = masculine
• ómöguleg = feminine
• ómögulegt = neuter

Here, the adjective is not describing a masculine or feminine noun like skjár or sól. It is describing the whole idea of að lesa skjáinn þegar sólin skín beint á hann. That is why the neuter form is used.

Because að lesa is the infinitive, meaning to read.

In Icelandic, the infinitive is often marked with að, just like English often uses to:

• að lesa = to read
• að fara = to go
• að sjá = to see

So:

• Það er ómögulegt að lesa skjáinn = It is impossible to read the screen

This is a very common pattern after adjectives like:

• auðvelt = easy
• erfitt = difficult
• mögulegt = possible
• ómögulegt = impossible

Skjáinn is the definite accusative singular of skjár (screen).

Here is the basic idea:

• skjár = a screen (nominative singular)
• skjáinn = the screen (accusative singular definite)

It is accusative because lesa normally takes a direct object, and direct objects are often in the accusative in Icelandic.

So:

• að lesa skjáinn = to read the screen

The -inn ending is the attached definite article, corresponding to English the.

Because Icelandic usually uses a suffixed definite article instead of a separate word like English the.

Examples from the sentence:

• skjár = screen

• skjáinn = the screen

• sól = sun
• sólin = the sun

So instead of saying a separate word for the, Icelandic often adds it to the end of the noun.

This is one of the most noticeable differences from English.

Þegar means when.

It introduces the time clause:

• þegar sólin skín beint á hann = when the sun shines directly on it

So the sentence is divided like this:

• Það er ómögulegt að lesa skjáinn = main clause
• þegar sólin skín beint á hann = subordinate time clause

This is very similar to English structure.

Because the sentence means the sun, not just sun in a general sense.

• sól = sun
• sólin = the sun

Also, sólin is the subject of the clause þegar sólin skín ..., so it is in the nominative case.

You can think of it as:

• sólin skín = the sun shines

Skín is the present tense, third person singular form of the verb skína, which means to shine.

So:

• ég skín would not be correct
• hann/hún/það skín = he/she/it shines
• sólin skín = the sun shines

Because sólin is singular, the verb is singular too.

Here beint is functioning as an adverb, meaning directly.

It comes from the adjective beinn (straight, direct), but in this sentence it modifies the verb phrase:

• skín beint á hann = shines directly on it

So it is not describing a noun. It is describing how the sun shines.

Compare:

• beinn vegur = a straight road
• fara beint = go straight
• skína beint á = shine directly on

Because with skína á in this kind of meaning, Icelandic uses á with the accusative.

So:

• hann = accusative of hann
• honum = dative of hann

In this sentence:

• á hann = on it / onto it / at it

This is something learners often have to memorize together with the verb or expression. Prepositions in Icelandic do not always match English neatly.

Also, hann refers back to skjáinn.

Because Icelandic pronouns follow the grammatical gender of the noun, not whether the thing is actually male or female.

The noun skjár is masculine, so when you refer back to it, you use masculine pronouns:

• skjár → hann

Even though a screen is an object, Icelandic still treats it grammatically as masculine.

So:

• skjáinn ... á hann = the screen ... on it

In English we say it, but Icelandic uses the pronoun that matches the noun’s gender.

Yes, it is completely normal.

The clause has:

• þegar = when
• sólin = subject
• skín = verb
• beint á hann = adverb + prepositional phrase

So the order is:

• when + subject + verb + rest

That is a very natural Icelandic clause order here.

Yes. A very common alternative would be:

• Það er ekki hægt að lesa skjáinn þegar sólin skín beint á hann.

That means roughly the same thing: It is not possible to read the screen when the sun shines directly on it.

The difference is mainly in tone:

• ómögulegt = impossible
• ekki hægt = not possible

Both are natural, but ómögulegt can sound a bit stronger.

A useful breakdown is:

• Það er ómögulegt = It is impossible
• að lesa skjáinn = to read the screen
• þegar sólin skín beint á hann = when the sun shines directly on it

So the full pattern is:

• Það er + adjective + að + infinitive + subordinate clause

This is a very useful Icelandic sentence pattern to learn, because you can reuse it easily:

• Það er auðvelt að... = It is easy to...
• Það er erfitt að... = It is difficult to...
• Það er mikilvægt að... = It is important to...
• Það er ómögulegt að... = It is impossible to...