Breakdown of Hann meiðir hnéð í fótbolta.
hann
he
í
in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)
meiða
to hurt
fótboltinn
the football
hnéð
the knee
Questions & Answers about Hann meiðir hnéð í fótbolta.
Why does the sentence use hnéð (the knee) instead of saying "his knee"?
In Icelandic, when you talk about things happening to body parts, you usually just use the definite article instead of a possessive word like hans. Adding the -ð to hné makes it "the knee", and the context makes it clear that it is his own knee.
Doesn't the verb meiða (to hurt) usually take the reflexive pronoun sig?
Why does the English translation say "playing football" when the Icelandic just says í fótbolta?
Icelandic commonly uses the preposition í (in) plus the name of the sport to express playing a game. So í fótbolta literally means "in football", which is the most natural way to describe participating in a sport in Icelandic.
What grammatical case is fótbolta in this sentence?
It is in the dative case. The preposition í takes the dative case when it describes an ongoing state or activity, like participating in a sport. The dictionary form of the word is fótbolti, which changes its ending to an -a in the dative.
Learn Hann meiðir hnéð í fótbolta and more in Icelandic
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free