Hún er hugrökk og hikar ekki við að tala íslensku við aðra.

Because the adjective has to agree with hún, which is feminine singular.

The dictionary form is hugrakkur = brave. Its singular forms are:

• masculine: hugrakkur
• feminine: hugrökk
• neuter: hugrakkt

So Hún er hugrökk means She is brave, with the feminine form of the adjective.

Because Icelandic, like English, often leaves out a repeated subject in coordinated clauses when it is clearly the same subject.

So:

• Hún er hugrökk og hikar ekki...

means the same subject, she, is understood for both verbs:

• er
• hikar

You could also say Hún er hugrökk og hún hikar ekki..., but repeating hún is less streamlined and usually unnecessary unless you want extra emphasis.

In a normal main clause, ekki usually comes after the finite verb.

So:

• hikar ekki = does not hesitate
• er ekki = is not

This is the standard placement in Icelandic main clauses. For an English speaker, it can help to think of ekki as often coming after the verb rather than before it.

Hika við að + infinitive is a common expression meaning to hesitate to do something.

So:

• hika við að tala = hesitate to speak

It is best learned as a chunk. The preposition við here is part of the expression and does not translate neatly word-for-word into natural English.

Because að is the infinitive marker, like English to.

So:

• að tala = to speak

After hika við, Icelandic normally uses að + infinitive to express the action someone hesitates to do:

• hikar við að tala
• hesitates to speak

They are doing two different jobs.

1. við in hikar við að tala

   • This is part of the fixed expression hika við að
   • It means hesitate to

2. við in við aðra

   • This is the ordinary preposition used with tala við einhvern
   • tala við means speak to / talk with

So even though the word is the same, the two viðs belong to different structures.

Because here the word for the language is in the accusative case.

The language name is íslenska in the nominative, but after tala it appears as the direct object, so it becomes íslensku.

Compare:

• Íslenska er fallegt mál. = Icelandic is a beautiful language.
• Hún talar íslensku. = She speaks Icelandic.

So in this sentence, íslensku is the object of tala.

Aðra is a form of annar, which means other or another.

Here it means others or other people, with the noun left unstated.

So:

• við aðra = with/to others or with/to other people

It is in the accusative plural because við takes the accusative.

Because aðrir is nominative plural, but after við you need the accusative.

So:

• nominative: aðrir = others
• accusative: aðra = others after a word that requires the accusative

Since the sentence has við aðra, the accusative form is required.

It can be understood either way in English, depending on context.

In Icelandic, tala við einhvern means talk to someone or speak with someone. So the sentence is saying that she does not hesitate to use Icelandic when interacting with other people.

A natural English translation could be:

• She is brave and does not hesitate to speak Icelandic to others.
• She is brave and does not hesitate to speak Icelandic with others.

Both capture the idea well.