Ferjan fer eftir fimmtán mínútur, og ferðin tekur um sextán mínútur í dag.

Ferja means ferry in the indefinite sense, while ferjan means the ferry.

In Icelandic, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word. So:

• ferja = a ferry / ferry
• ferjan = the ferry

That final -n is the definite article.

Icelandic often uses the present tense for scheduled or expected future events, especially with transport, timetables, and plans.

So Ferjan fer eftir fimmtán mínútur is completely natural Icelandic for a near-future scheduled event. English does something similar in sentences like The ferry leaves in fifteen minutes.

Here, fer is the 3rd person singular present form of fara, meaning to go or to leave.

In this sentence, eftir fimmtán mínútur means in fifteen minutes from now.

Literally, eftir often corresponds to after, but in time expressions like this, the natural English meaning is usually in when you are talking about how long from now something will happen.

So the idea is:

• Ferjan fer eftir fimmtán mínútur = the ferry leaves fifteen minutes from now

Because the sentence is talking about more than one minute.

The singular is:

• mínúta = minute

The plural is:

• mínútur = minutes

So after fimmtán and sextán, you naturally get the plural:

• fimmtán mínútur
• sextán mínútur

That works much like English fifteen minutes and sixteen minutes.

This is a very common Icelandic way to express duration.

Taka means to take, and Icelandic uses it much like English does in sentences such as The trip takes sixteen minutes.

So:

• ferðin = the trip / the journey
• tekur = takes

Together, ferðin tekur um sextán mínútur means that the journey lasts about sixteen minutes.

Here um means about or approximately.

So:

• sextán mínútur = sixteen minutes
• um sextán mínútur = about sixteen minutes

If you remove um, the statement sounds more exact. With um, the speaker is giving an estimate.

Both words are definite, but Icelandic definite endings change depending on the noun’s form.

• ferja ends in a vowel, so the definite form is ferjan
• ferð ends in a consonant, so the definite form is ferðin

So both mean the ..., but the exact ending is not always identical. That is normal in Icelandic noun inflection.

Yes, they are clearly part of the same travel/movement word family.

• fara = to go / travel
• fer = goes / leaves
• ferð = trip / journey / travel
• ferja = ferry

For a learner, this is useful because Icelandic often builds related meanings from the same core idea.

Most naturally, í dag goes with the second clause:

• ferðin tekur um sextán mínútur í dag

That means the trip takes about sixteen minutes today.

It suggests that today’s conditions are relevant to the journey time, perhaps because of weather, traffic, or some other temporary factor. Because í dag comes at the end, it is read most naturally with that second clause.

Because the sentence contains two full clauses joined by og:

• Ferjan fer eftir fimmtán mínútur
• ferðin tekur um sextán mínútur í dag

In Icelandic, it is common to use a comma before og when two complete clauses are being linked. English punctuation can be less consistent here, so this may stand out to English-speaking learners.