Question 1

How do we get "celebrate" from "höldum upp á"?

Accepted Answer

Halda upp á is a fixed phrase (a phrasal verb) that means "to celebrate" an event, like a birthday or a holiday. Literally, it translates to "hold up on", but you should learn it as a single unit meaning "celebrate".

Question 2

Why does it say "afmælið hennar" (the birthday her) instead of "hennar afmæli"?

Accepted Answer

In Icelandic, it is much more common to put the possessive word (hennar) after the noun. When you do this, the noun usually takes the definite article (-ð). So, "her birthday" becomes afmælið hennar (literally "the birthday hers").

Question 3

What case is "afmælið" in here?

Accepted Answer

It is in the accusative case because the phrase halda upp á requires the object following it to be accusative. Since afmæli is a neuter noun, its accusative form looks exactly the same as its nominative (dictionary) form.

Question 4

Why do we use "hennar" here instead of a reflexive possessive pronoun like "sitt"?

Accepted Answer

Reflexive pronouns (like sinn, sitt, sín) refer back to the subject of the sentence. The subject here is við (we). Because we are celebrating a separate person's birthday (a female's), we use the regular genitive pronoun hennar (her) rather than a reflexive pronoun.

Við höldum upp á afmælið hennar.

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