Breakdown of Hann er þreyttur en vinnur samt.
vera
to be
hann
he
en
but
þreyttur
tired
vinna
to work (general labor, to do work)
samt
still, anyway, even so
Questions & Answers about Hann er þreyttur en vinnur samt.
Why is the adjective þreyttur and not just þreytt?
Adjectives in Icelandic change their endings to match the word they describe. Because hann (he) is a masculine word, the adjective takes the masculine singular ending -ur. If the subject were hún (she), it would be hún er þreytt.
Can we drop the subject in the second half? Why doesn't it say en hann vinnur samt?
Yes! Just like in English, if the subject is the same for both verbs connected by en (but), you don't have to repeat it. Saying en hann vinnur samt is also grammatically correct, but dropping the second hann sounds very natural.
Does samt mean the same kind of 'still' as in 'he is still working'?
Not quite! Samt means 'still' in the sense of 'nevertheless' or 'anyway' (he is tired, but he works anyway). If you wanted to say he is still working right now because he hasn't stopped yet, you would use the word enn instead.
Why is samt placed at the very end of the sentence?
Adverbs like samt (nevertheless or anyway) frequently go at the end of a short clause in Icelandic. You can put it earlier for a different emphasis, but placing it at the end is the most standard, neutral word order here.
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