Hendur hennar eru óhreinar eftir vinnu í garðinum.

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.

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.

Because the subject is plural.

• höndin er óhrein = the hand is dirty
• hendur hennar eru óhreinar = her hands are dirty

The verb vera (to be) agrees with the subject in number:

• er = singular
• eru = plural

So since hendur is plural, Icelandic uses eru.

Because adjectives in Icelandic agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.

Hendur is:

• feminine
• plural
• nominative

So the adjective óhreinn (dirty / unclean) must match that, giving:

• masculine singular: óhreinn
• feminine singular: óhrein
• neuter singular: óhreint
• feminine nominative plural: óhreinar

That is why the sentence has óhreinar.

Here óhreinar is not directly attached to the noun inside the noun phrase. It is a predicate adjective, used after the verb vera (to be).

So the structure is:

• Hendur hennar = subject
• eru = verb
• óhreinar = predicate adjective

This is like English:

• Her hands are dirty

Compare that with an attributive adjective, which comes before the noun:

• óhreinar hendur = dirty hands

So:

• óhreinar hendur = dirty hands
• hendur hennar eru óhreinar = her hands are dirty

Hennar is the genitive form of the pronoun hún (she). In this sentence it functions as a possessive:

• hún = she
• hana = her (object)
• henni = her (indirect object / dative)
• hennar = her / hers (genitive, possessive)

So hendur hennar literally means something like the hands of her, but in normal English we say her hands.

Because the preposition eftir takes the dative when it means after in time.

The noun is vinna (work), and its dative singular form is vinnu.

So:

• vinna = nominative
• vinnu = dative

That gives:

• eftir vinnu = after work

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

Because Icelandic often leaves out the article when speaking about something in a general sense.

Here vinna means work in a general/activity sense, not a specific single piece of work. So:

• eftir vinnu = after work

This is similar to English, where we also usually say after work, not after the work, unless we mean a specific job/task.

If you said eftir vinnuna, that would mean after the work or after the job/task, referring to something specific.

Because í can take either dative or accusative, depending on meaning:

• dative = location, being somewhere
• accusative = motion into somewhere

Here the meaning is location: the work happened in the garden, not movement into the garden.

So Icelandic uses the dative:

• í garðinum = in the garden

Compare:

• Ég er í garðinum. = I am in the garden.
• Ég fer í garðinn. = I go into the garden.

That location/motion distinction is very important in Icelandic.

That ending includes both the dative singular ending and the definite article.

Base noun:

• garður = garden

With the definite article:

• garðurinn = the garden (nominative)

In the dative singular with the article:

• garðinum = the garden (dative, after í for location)

So í garðinum literally means in the-garden. Icelandic usually attaches the to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English.

Yes, but the basic version here is the most straightforward:

• Hendur hennar eru óhreinar eftir vinnu í garðinum.

You could move parts around for emphasis, for example:

• Eftir vinnu í garðinum eru hendur hennar óhreinar.

That means the same thing, but it highlights after work in the garden first.

One important Icelandic rule is verb-second word order in main clauses. If you move something to the front, the finite verb usually still stays in second position:

• Eftir vinnu í garðinum
  • eru
    • hendur hennar óhreinar

So yes, the order can change, but the original sentence is the most neutral and natural.

Yes, óhreinn is a normal and useful word meaning unclean or dirty.

It is built from:

• hreinn = clean
• ó- = a negative prefix, like un-

So:

• hreinn = clean
• óhreinn = unclean / dirty

Depending on context, Icelandic can also use other words such as skítugur, which often feels more like filthy, muddy, or messy. In this sentence, óhreinar works very naturally for dirty hands after gardening.

You would need singular forms for both the noun and the words that agree with it:

• Hönd hennar er óhrein eftir vinnu í garðinum.

Changes:

• hendur → hönd (plural to singular)
• eru → er (plural verb to singular verb)
• óhreinar → óhrein (plural feminine to singular feminine)

That is a good example of how Icelandic changes several words to match number and grammar.