Lampinn hangir hátt fyrir ofan borðið.

Lampinn = the lamp
hangir = hangs / is hanging
hátt = high / high up
fyrir ofan = above
borðið = the table

So the sentence structure is:

subject + verb + adverb + prepositional phrase

That gives: The lamp hangs high above the table.

Because lampinn is the definite form: the lamp.

The basic noun is lampi = a lamp.
When Icelandic says the lamp, it usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So:

• lampi = a lamp
• lampinn = the lamp

This is very common in Icelandic.

For the same reason: borðið is the definite form of borð.

• borð = a table
• borðið = the table

So both nouns in the sentence are definite:

• lampinn = the lamp
• borðið = the table

Hangir is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb að hanga, which means to hang.

So:

• að hanga = to hang
• hangir = hangs / is hanging

It matches lampinn because lampinn is singular: the lamp hangs.

Because Icelandic often uses the simple present where English might use either the simple present or the progressive.

So Lampinn hangir can naturally mean:

• The lamp hangs
• The lamp is hanging

English makes a stronger distinction between those two forms than Icelandic usually does in ordinary sentences.

Here hátt is being used as an adverb, not as an adjective directly describing the lamp.

The adjective is hár = high / tall.
But Icelandic very often uses the neuter singular form of an adjective as an adverb.

So:

• hár = masculine adjective form
• hátt = adverbial use, meaning high or high up

In this sentence, hátt tells you how / where the lamp hangs, not what kind of lamp it is.

Fyrir ofan means above or higher than in a positional sense.

So fyrir ofan borðið = above the table.

A learner may notice that yfir can also mean over / above, but the two are not always interchangeable.

Very roughly:

• fyrir ofan = specifically above
• yfir = can mean over, across, above, and is often broader in use

In a sentence like this, where you are simply locating something at a higher position than the table, fyrir ofan is very natural.

Fyrir ofan normally takes the accusative.

So in this sentence, borðið is accusative.

However, with the neuter noun borð, the nominative and accusative singular look the same:

• nominative: borð
• accusative: borð
• definite nominative: borðið
• definite accusative: borðið

So the form does not visibly change here, even though the case is accusative.

The sentence as given has a very normal neutral order:

Lampinn hangir hátt fyrir ofan borðið.

But Icelandic word order is somewhat flexible, especially for emphasis. For example, you could front the location phrase:

Hátt fyrir ofan borðið hangir lampinn.

That sounds more marked or literary, with extra focus on the location.

One important Icelandic pattern is that the finite verb often stays in second position in main clauses. So if you move another element to the front, the verb typically comes before the subject:

• Lampinn hangir ...
• Hátt fyrir ofan borðið hangir lampinn.