Ég beið í sextíu mínútur eftir pakkanum, en konan sem kom með hann fann ekki rétta dyrasímann.

Beið is the past tense of bíða, which means to wait.

A few useful forms are:

• að bíða — to wait
• ég bíð — I wait / I am waiting
• ég beið — I waited

This is a strong verb, so the vowel changes in the past tense instead of just adding a regular ending.

In everyday Icelandic, bíða eftir is the normal way to say wait for someone or something.

So:

• bíða eftir einhverju — wait for something
• bíða eftir einhverjum — wait for someone

English uses wait for, and Icelandic also needs a preposition here. You usually would not just say beið pakkann in normal modern Icelandic.

Because eftir takes the dative case here, and pakkanum is the dative singular definite form of pakki.

So the noun changes like this:

• pakki — a package, the package as dictionary form
• pakkann — the package, accusative
• pakkanum — the package, dative

So eftir pakkanum means for the package, with the case required by the preposition.

Here í + accusative is used to express duration of time, like English for sixty minutes.

So:

• í fimm mínútur — for five minutes
• í tvo daga — for two days
• í eina viku — for one week

In this sentence, í sextíu mínútur means the waiting lasted that long.

Sem is the relative word meaning who, that, or which.

Here it introduces a relative clause describing konan:

• konan — the woman
• sem kom með hann — who came with it / who brought it

A useful thing to know is that sem does not change form for gender, number, or case. It stays sem.

Koma með often means bring or come with.

So konan sem kom með hann literally means something like:

• the woman who came with it

But in natural English, that is often best understood as:

• the woman who brought it

The verb is:

• að koma — to come
• kom — came

So kom með hann is a very natural Icelandic way to express that she arrived carrying or bringing the package.

Because pakki is a masculine noun, and Icelandic pronouns usually match the grammatical gender of the noun they refer to.

So:

• pakki — masculine
• therefore the pronoun is hann

Also, after með, the pronoun is in the required form for that preposition. Here the important point for a learner is that hann refers back to pakkanum because pakki is masculine.

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

So:

• hún fann ekki... — she did not find...
• ég sá ekki... — I did not see...
• við komum ekki... — we did not come...

That is why the sentence has:

• fann ekki rétta dyrasímann

not a structure like English did not find.

Because the noun is definite: dyrasímann means the correct doorbell/intercom, not just a correct doorbell/intercom.

In Icelandic, adjectives have:

• a strong form, often used with indefinite nouns
• a weak form, usually used with definite nouns

So compare:

• réttan dyrasíma — a correct doorbell/intercom
• rétta dyrasímann — the correct doorbell/intercom

Here the definite noun triggers the weak adjective form rétta.

Dyrasímann is masculine singular accusative definite.

It is accusative because it is the direct object of fann:

• að finna eitthvað — to find something

The basic noun is dyrasími. Its forms include:

• dyrasími — nominative singular
• dyrasíma — accusative singular
• dyrasímann — accusative singular definite

So the sentence literally has found not the correct doorbell/intercom.

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

Examples from the sentence:

• konan — the woman
• pakkanum — the package, in dative
• dyrasímann — the doorbell/intercom, in accusative

This is one of the biggest differences from English. Icelandic definite nouns often contain the article as a suffix.

Dyrasími is a compound noun:

• dyra- — door / doorway-related
• sími — telephone

In real usage, dyrasími usually means a door intercom, entry phone, or sometimes the doorbell/intercom unit for an apartment building.

So rétta dyrasímann means the correct bell/intercom button or unit that the delivery person was supposed to use.