Word
Hún talar oft um heimalandið.
Meaning
She often talks about the home country.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Hún talar oft um heimalandið.
In English we say "often talks", so why is it talar oft in this sentence?
In Icelandic main clauses, the verb must come in the second position (the V2 rule). Because Hún (she) is the first piece of information, the verb talar (talks) must come next, pushing the adverb oft (often) to the third spot.
What case does the preposition um trigger here?
The preposition um (about) requires the following noun to be in the accusative case. However, because heimaland (home country) is a neuter noun, its accusative form looks exactly the same as its nominative (dictionary) form.
Where is the word for "the" in heimalandið?
Icelandic usually attaches "the" to the end of the noun rather than using a separate word. The base word is heimaland. Because it is a neuter noun ending in a consonant, the definite article suffix is -ið, making it heimalandið.
Is heimalandið made up of two smaller words?
Yes! It's a compound word made of heima (at home) and land (country or land). Icelandic builds many new words simply by sticking basic words together like this.