Hún vill skilja allt áður en hún fer heim.

Vilja is the infinitive, meaning to want. In the sentence, the verb is conjugated to match hún (she), so you need the 3rd person singular present form:

• ég vil = I want
• þú vilt = you want
• hún vill = she wants

So Hún vill means she wants.

Because it comes after vill.

In Icelandic, just like in English, a modal-type verb such as vilja (to want) is followed by another verb in the infinitive:

• Hún vill skilja = She wants to understand

Compare English:

• She wants understand ❌
• She wants to understand ✅

Icelandic does not use a separate word exactly like English to here, so the infinitive simply appears as skilja.

Yes, skilja can mean different things depending on context. Very commonly, it means to understand, but in other contexts it can mean to separate, to leave, or to part.

Here, the object is allt (everything), so skilja allt is naturally understood as:

• understand everything

That is the normal meaning in this sentence.

Allt means everything here.

It comes from allur (all), which changes form depending on gender, number, and case. In this sentence, allt is the neuter singular form used in the sense of everything.

A useful comparison:

• allur = all (masculine singular)
• öll = all (feminine singular / neuter plural, depending on context)
• allt = all / everything (neuter singular)

So skilja allt means understand everything.

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

The verb skilja takes a direct object, and that object is commonly in the accusative:

• skilja eitthvað = understand something
• skilja allt = understand everything

In this particular word, allt, the nominative and accusative neuter singular forms look the same, so you do not see a different ending, but grammatically it is functioning as the direct object.

Áður en means before in the sense of before something happens.

It introduces a subordinate clause:

• áður en hún fer heim = before she goes home

You can think of it as a fixed expression:

• áður = earlier / before
• en = than / when / before introducing a clause, depending on context

Together, áður en is the normal way to say before + clause.

Because áður en is followed by a clause with its own subject and verb.

Here the sentence has two parts:

1. Hún vill skilja allt
   = She wants to understand everything

2. áður en hún fer heim
   = before she goes home

The second part is not just a single word like before leaving; it is a full clause: she goes home.

For the same reason as vill: the verb must be conjugated.

The infinitive is fara (to go), but with hún in the present tense, you use fer:

• ég fer = I go
• þú ferð = you go
• hún fer = she goes

So:

• hún fer heim = she goes home

This is very normal in Icelandic.

Icelandic often uses the present tense to talk about future actions when the time reference is clear from context. In English, we also do something similar in clauses with before, when, after, etc.:

• She wants to understand everything before she goes home.

English uses goes, not will go, in that clause. Icelandic works similarly:

• áður en hún fer heim
  literally: before she goes home

Even if the action is in the future, the present tense is standard here.

Because heim is a directional adverb meaning home(wards).

In Icelandic, movement toward home is often expressed with heim, without a preposition:

• fara heim = go home
• koma heim = come home

This is similar to English, where we also say go home, not go to home.

A useful contrast is:

• heim = home, toward home
• heima = at home

So:

• Hún fer heim = She goes home
• Hún er heima = She is at home

Normally, Icelandic keeps the subject pronoun in each clause, so hún is repeated:

• Hún vill skilja allt áður en hún fer heim.

The second clause needs its own subject and verb:

• hún fer heim

Unlike some languages, Icelandic does not usually drop subject pronouns in ordinary sentences just because the subject is already understood.

The structure is:

Subject + finite verb + infinitive + object + subordinate clause

So here:

• Hún = subject
• vill = finite verb
• skilja = infinitive
• allt = object
• áður en hún fer heim = subordinate time clause

That gives:

• Hún vill skilja allt áður en hún fer heim.

This is a very natural and standard Icelandic word order.

Yes. For example, you could front the time clause:

• Áður en hún fer heim, vill hún skilja allt.

This still means the same thing.

Notice what happens in the main clause after the fronted element:

• vill hún, not hún vill

That is because Icelandic follows a verb-second pattern in main clauses. If something other than the subject comes first, the finite verb usually comes next.

So both are possible:

• Hún vill skilja allt áður en hún fer heim.
• Áður en hún fer heim, vill hún skilja allt.

A rough English-friendly guide:

• hún ≈ hoon
• vill ≈ vitl with a short i, though the ll has an Icelandic pronunciation that does not match English exactly
• skilja ≈ skil-ya
• áður ≈ OW-thur or OW-dhur with the Icelandic ð, which is like the th in this
• en = enn
• fer = fer with a short e
• heim ≈ hame or haym depending on how closely you want to imitate Icelandic pronunciation

A more natural overall rhythm would be something like:

• Hoon vitl skil-ya alt OW-thur en hoon fer haym

That is only approximate, but it is a useful starting point.

You usually place ekki after the finite verb:

• Hún vill ekki skilja allt áður en hún fer heim.

That means:

• She does not want to understand everything before she goes home.

So the pattern is:

• hún vill = she wants
• hún vill ekki = she does not want

This placement of ekki is very common in Icelandic main clauses.