Eftir fundinn í húsfélaginu skrifaði ég athugasemd um skítugan stigagang sem hafði verið svona í hundrað daga.

Because eftir in the sense of after takes the accusative case.

• fundur = nominative a meeting
• fundinn = accusative definite the meeting

So:

• eftir fund = after a meeting
• eftir fundinn = after the meeting

This is a very common pattern in Icelandic: prepositions often control a specific case.

Because í usually takes the dative when it means in or at a location without movement.

Here, í húsfélaginu means something like in/at the residents’ association / housing association.

Breaking it down:

• húsfélag = housing association, residents’ association
• húsfélaginu = the housing association, in the dative singular

So the phrase is:

• í húsfélaginu = in/at the housing association

If there were movement into something, Icelandic often uses í with the accusative instead.

This is because Icelandic follows a verb-second pattern in main clauses.

The sentence starts with the time phrase:

• Eftir fundinn í húsfélaginu = after the meeting in the housing association

Once that element is placed first, the finite verb usually comes next:

• Eftir fundinn í húsfélaginu skrifaði ég ...

So the order is:

1. Fronted phrase
2. Finite verb
3. Subject

In more neutral order, you could have:

• Ég skrifaði athugasemd eftir fundinn í húsfélaginu ...

But when the time phrase is moved to the front, skrifaði must come before ég.

Athugasemd usually means comment, remark, or note.

In this sentence, skrifaði ég athugasemd most naturally means:

• I wrote a comment
• I wrote a note
• possibly I submitted a complaint/comment, depending on context

It is a feminine noun.

Here it appears without the definite article, so it means a comment, not the comment.

Because um takes the accusative case when it means about/concerning.

So the whole phrase:

• um skítugan stigagang = about a dirty stairwell

Breaking it down:

• stigagangur = stairwell, staircase area
• stigagang = accusative singular
• skítugur = dirty
• skítugan = masculine accusative singular

The adjective has to agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• case

Since stigagangur is masculine singular accusative, the adjective becomes skítugan.

Because the phrase is indefinite:

• skítugan stigagang = a dirty stairwell

If Icelandic wanted to say the dirty stairwell, the noun and adjective would usually be marked differently, for example with the definite article on the noun and often weak adjective forms.

Here, the speaker is referring to a dirty stairwell as the topic of the comment, not explicitly saying the dirty stairwell.

That said, in real context, it may still be a specific stairwell known to the people involved. Icelandic does not always match English article usage exactly.

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

In this sentence:

• skítugan stigagang sem hafði verið svona ...
• a dirty stairwell that had been like this ...

So sem introduces a relative clause describing stigagang.

A useful thing to know is that sem does not change form for gender or case the way some relative pronouns do in other languages. It is very flexible.

Hafði verið is the past perfect:

• hafði = had
• verið = been

So hafði verið svona means:

• had been like this

This shows a state that existed before another past event.

Timeline:

1. The stairwell was in that condition for a long time.
2. Then the speaker wrote the comment.

So Icelandic uses the equivalent of English had been because it is a past-in-the-past situation.

If the sentence said sem var svona, it would sound more like which was like this, without emphasizing that earlier ongoing state in the same way.

Here svona means like this, like that, or in this condition/state.

In the sentence:

• sem hafði verið svona í hundrað daga
• that had been like this / had been in this state for a hundred days

It refers to the dirty condition of the stairwell.

So svona is not pointing to physical closeness only; it often describes a manner or condition:

• Það var svona. = It was like this / It was this way.

In Icelandic, í can be used with time expressions to mean for a duration.

So:

• í hundrað daga = for a hundred days

This is a very common pattern:

• í tvo daga = for two days
• í viku = for a week
• í mörg ár = for many years

So even though English uses for, Icelandic often uses í in these duration expressions.

It can naturally be understood as the meeting in/of the housing association, and in English you would often translate it more smoothly as:

• the housing association meeting
• the residents’ association meeting

Literally, it looks like:

• the meeting in the housing association

But idiomatically it refers to the meeting connected with that organization.

This is a good example of where a very literal translation may sound odd in English even though the Icelandic is perfectly normal.

Several different cases appear here:

• Eftir fundinn

  • fundinn = accusative, because eftir = after

• í húsfélaginu

  • húsfélaginu = dative, because í with location takes dative

• athugasemd

  • direct object of skrifaði
  • feminine singular; here the form looks the same as nominative

• um skítugan stigagang

  • skítugan stigagang = accusative, because um = about

• í hundrað daga

  • duration expression with í

This sentence is a good example of how important prepositions are for case choice in Icelandic.