Ég get ekki notað símann minn, því skjárinn er skemmdur.

Get is the 1st person singular present form of the verb geta, which means can / be able to.

• ég get = I can
• þú getur = you can
• hann/hún/það getur = he/she/it can

So Ég get ekki... literally starts as I can not...

In a normal Icelandic main clause, the finite verb usually comes early, and ekki normally comes after that verb.

So:

• Ég get ekki... = I cannot...

This is the usual pattern:

• Ég er ekki hér. = I am not here.
• Hann kemur ekki. = He is not coming.

For an English speaker, it can feel a bit different because English often puts not right after an auxiliary, but in Icelandic this placement is very regular.

After geta, Icelandic uses a verb form often called the supine (sagnbót), not the infinitive.

So:

• infinitive: að nota = to use
• after geta: get notað = can use

More examples:

• að lesa → ég get lesið
• að fara → ég get farið
• að skrifa → ég get skrifað

So Ég get ekki notað... is the normal pattern.

Because símann means the phone, and here Icelandic uses the noun with the definite article attached to the end.

• sími = phone (nominative singular)
• síma = phone in the accusative/oblique form
• símann = the phone in the accusative

In this sentence, the phone is the direct object of notað, so it is in the accusative case.

That gives:

• síma = phone
• símann = the phone

In everyday Icelandic, it is very common to put the possessive after the noun, especially when the noun already has the definite article:

• símann minn = literally the phone my, but naturally my phone

This is a very normal Icelandic way to express possession.

A fronted possessive such as minn sími or minn síma is possible, but it often sounds more emphatic, contrastive, or stylistically marked.

So here:

• símann minn = the natural neutral choice

It actually is matching the noun grammatically.

Minn agrees with símann in:

• gender: masculine
• number: singular
• case: accusative

The relevant noun is sími (masculine singular), and here it is in the accusative, so minn is the correct matching form.

This agreement is very important in Icelandic possessives and adjectives.

Here því means because.

So:

• ..., því skjárinn er skemmdur. = ..., because the screen is damaged.

You may also see longer forms such as:

• því að
• af því að

All of these can mean because, though they can differ a bit in style and frequency depending on context and speaker.

In this sentence, plain því is a neat, natural way to introduce the reason.

Because því introduces a subordinate clause, and subordinate clauses in Icelandic do not follow the same verb-second pattern as main clauses.

So after því, you get normal subject-verb order:

• því skjárinn er skemmdur

Compare:

• main clause: Skjárinn er skemmdur.
• after því: ... því skjárinn er skemmdur.

For learners, this is a useful contrast:

• main clauses often show verb-second behavior
• subordinate clauses usually keep more regular subject-verb order

Skjárinn is skjár + the suffixed definite article -inn, so it means the screen.

• skjár = screen
• skjárinn = the screen

It is in the nominative singular here because it is the subject of the clause:

• skjárinn er skemmdur = the screen is damaged

Icelandic usually attaches the to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

Skemmdur is a form that agrees with skjárinn and means damaged.

It comes from the verb skemma = to damage / ruin, but here it is being used like an adjective after er:

• er skemmdur = is damaged

The ending -ur appears because skjárinn is:

• masculine
• singular
• nominative

So the adjective/participle must match it.

Compare:

• masculine: skemmdur
• feminine: skemmd
• neuter: skemmt

This kind of agreement is a major feature of Icelandic grammar.

The comma separates the two clauses:

• Ég get ekki notað símann minn
• því skjárinn er skemmdur

Icelandic punctuation often uses commas to mark clause boundaries quite clearly, including before subordinate clauses like this one. In English, comma use before because can be more restricted, so this may stand out to learners.

So the comma here is normal Icelandic punctuation.

A good rough guide is thvee.

Breakdown:

• þ = the th sound in thing
• í = a long ee sound
• so því sounds roughly like thvee

That þ letter is called thorn, and it is very common in Icelandic. English used to have it historically, but modern English no longer does.