Ég sá hana áðan í búðinni.

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Breakdown of Ég sá hana áðan í búðinni.

• sjá: to see
• búðin: the store
• í: at

Questions & Answers about Ég sá hana áðan í búðinni.

Why is sá used here? Isn't the infinitive sjá?

Yes. Sá is the past tense form of sjá (to see).

Icelandic verbs often change their stem in the past tense, and sjá is irregular:

• sjá = to see
• ég sé = I see
• ég sá = I saw

So Ég sá hana... means I saw her...

A useful thing to notice: in the singular past tense, ég sá and hann/hún sá have the same verb form.

Why is it hana instead of hún?

Because hana is the accusative form, and hún is the nominative form.

In this sentence:

• Ég = subject, so it is nominative
• hana = direct object, so it is accusative

The forms are:

• hún = she
• hana = her
• henni = to/for her
• hennar = her, of her

So:

• Ég sá hún would be wrong
• Ég sá hana is correct

What exactly does áðan mean?