Hendur hennar eru óhreinar eftir vinnu í garðinum.

Her hands are dirty after working in the garden.

Breakdown of Hendur hennar eru óhreinar eftir vinnu í garðinum.

• vera: to be
• vinnan: the work
• í: in
• eftir: after

Questions & Answers about Hendur hennar eru óhreinar eftir vinnu í garðinum.

Why is it hendur hennar and not hennar hendur?

In ordinary Icelandic, possessive words like hennar often come after the noun:

• hendur hennar = her hands
• bíllinn minn = my car
• húsið okkar = our house

You can put the possessive first, but that usually sounds more emphatic, contrastive, literary, or marked:

• hennar hendur = her hands (with extra emphasis, as opposed to someone else’s)

So hendur hennar is the most natural neutral order here.

What form is hendur?

Hendur is the nominative plural of hönd (hand).

A few useful forms are:

• hönd = a hand
• hendur = hands
• hendi = hand (dative singular)
• handa = hands (genitive plural)

Here it is nominative plural because hands is the subject of the sentence: Her hands are dirty.

Why is the verb eru and not er?