Ég las meðmælin í dag.

Here is the basic breakdown:

• Ég = the subject, I
• las = the verb, past tense of að lesa
• meðmælin = the direct object
• í dag = a time expression, today

So the sentence structure is basically:

subject + verb + object + time expression

That is a very normal Icelandic sentence pattern.

Las is the past tense form of að lesa.

A few useful forms are:

• að lesa = to read
• ég les = I read / I am reading
• ég las = I read

So this verb changes vowel in the past tense:

• les- in the present
• las- in the past

That is normal for many strong Icelandic verbs.

Because Icelandic usually puts the definite article onto the end of the noun instead of using a separate word in front.

So:

• meðmæli = recommendations / references
• meðmælin = the recommendations / the references

The -in ending here is the definite article.

English says the recommendations. Icelandic usually says recommendations-the.

It is normally treated as a plural noun in Icelandic.

So meðmælin is grammatically plural, even if English might sometimes translate the idea in a way that does not feel strongly plural.

This is one of those nouns you should learn as a set item:

• meðmæli = recommendations / references
• meðmælin = the recommendations / the references

So if you were expecting a simple singular noun, this word can feel a bit unusual to English speakers.

It is the direct object of las, so it is in the accusative.

The verb að lesa normally takes an accusative object.

However, with this noun, the form does not obviously change here, because neuter plural nominative and accusative are the same in Icelandic.

So even though meðmælin is accusative in this sentence, it looks the same as the nominative definite plural form.

That is a very common thing in neuter nouns.

Í dag is a fixed Icelandic expression meaning today.

Literally, it uses í + dag, but the important thing for a learner is that you should memorize í dag as a whole phrase.

This is similar to how Icelandic has other common time expressions such as:

• í dag = today
• í gær = yesterday
• á morgun = tomorrow

Even if prepositions and case can get complicated in Icelandic, í dag is best learned as a standard chunk.

Yes, Icelandic word order is flexible, but there is an important rule: the finite verb usually stays in second position in main clauses.

So besides:

• Ég las meðmælin í dag.

you can also say:

• Í dag las ég meðmælin.

That is perfectly normal.

But you would not normally say:

• Í dag ég las meðmælin.

because the verb las must still come in the second position.

This is one of the most important word-order rules in Icelandic.

Normally, yes, it is necessary.

Icelandic usually keeps subject pronouns, even though the verb gives some information about person and number.

So:

• Ég las = normal
• leaving out ég would usually sound incomplete or wrong in an ordinary sentence

In that way, Icelandic is different from languages like Spanish or Italian, where subject pronouns are often omitted.

In Icelandic, accent marks are part of the spelling and usually show a different vowel sound, not just extra stress.

In this sentence:

• é in Ég is a distinct vowel sound
• í is a long ee sound
• æ in mæ sounds roughly like eye

So you should not ignore the accents. They matter for both pronunciation and spelling.

A rough English-friendly approximation is:

yeg lahs METH-my-lin ee daugh

A few helpful notes:

• Ég: starts with a y-like glide
• las: sounds roughly like lahs
• ð in meðmælin is like th in this
• æ sounds roughly like eye
• í sounds like ee
• dag ends with a soft Icelandic g sound that does not sound exactly like English g

Also, Icelandic stress usually falls on the first syllable of a word, so:

• MEÐ-mæ-lin

If you want to sound more natural, learning the sentence by listening and repeating is especially helpful here.