Hún elur barnið.

• Hún = the subject pronoun, she
• elur = the finite verb, raises / brings up / nourishes
• barnið = the direct object, the child

So the structure is:

subject + verb + object

which is the same basic order English uses in a simple sentence.

Elur is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb ala.

So:

• infinitive: ala = to raise, nourish, rear
• present: hún elur = she raises / she is raising

A learner often expects something closer to ala in the present tense, but this verb is not fully regular. The stem changes, so you get elur rather than alar.

Because ala is an irregular verb. In Icelandic, some common verbs change their vowel or stem when they are conjugated.

So even though the infinitive is ala, the present singular form here is elur.

This is something you usually just have to learn with the verb:

• ala = infinitive
• elur = present singular form used here

It is very normal in Icelandic for a verb’s stem to look different in different forms.

The ending -ið is the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• barn = child
• barnið = the child

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

Also, Icelandic has no true indefinite article like English a/an, so:

• barn can mean a child or just child, depending on context
• barnið specifically means the child

The verb ala takes a direct object, and that object is in the accusative case.

Here, barnið is the object, so it is accusative.

However, with barn, the nominative and accusative singular look the same, so you do not see a visible change here. In other words:

• nominative singular definite: barnið
• accusative singular definite: barnið

So the form stays the same, even though the grammatical case is different.

Usually hún means she, referring to a female person.

But in Icelandic, pronouns also follow grammatical gender, so hún can also refer back to a noun that is grammatically feminine, even if it is not a woman.

In this sentence by itself, though, most learners will naturally understand hún as she.

No. Ala has a broader range of meanings, including ideas like:

• raise
• rear
• nourish
• feed
• sometimes breed (especially with animals)

In the sentence Hún elur barnið, the natural meaning is she raises / brings up the child, because the object is the child.

So the exact English translation depends on context, but with barnið, the child-rearing sense is the important one.

The sentence Hún elur barnið uses the most neutral, straightforward word order:

subject + verb + object

Icelandic can move things around more than English for emphasis, style, or sentence structure, but this version is the plain, default way to say it.

So for a learner, this is the safest pattern to copy.

A rough learner-friendly guide would be:

• Hún ≈ hoon
• elur ≈ EH-lur
• barnið ≈ roughly bart-nith

A few useful notes:

• ú in hún is like oo in food
• ð in barnið is the soft th sound from this
• In real Icelandic pronunciation, barn does not sound exactly like English barn; the consonants are a bit different

So a rough full pronunciation is:

hoon EH-lur bart-nith

That is only approximate, but it is good enough to get started.