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Þetta umræðuefni er nemandanum mjög gagnlegt.

Þetta umræðuefni er nemandanum mjög gagnlegt.
This topic of discussion is very useful to the student.
From Lesson 177:Adjectives governing the dative·Icelandic

Questions & Answers about Þetta umræðuefni er nemandanum mjög gagnlegt.

Why is nemandanum in the dative case here?
It is governed by the adjective gagnlegt (useful). In Icelandic, certain adjectives require the noun or pronoun they affect to be in the dative case. The phrase "useful to someone" is expressed as gagnlegur einhverjum, so the student (nemandinn) must be in the dative case (nemandanum).
In English we say "useful to the student," but here nemandanum comes before gagnlegt. Is this word order required?
Yes, this is the standard word order in Icelandic. When an adjective governs a case (like the dative here), the noun or pronoun receiving the action usually goes right before the adjective or its modifiers. So instead of saying "is very useful to the student," Icelandic literally says "is to the student very useful" (er nemandanum mjög gagnlegt).
Why does the adjective gagnlegt end in -t?
It has to agree in gender, number, and case with the subject it is describing, which is Þetta umræðuefni (This topic of discussion). Because efni (topic) is a neuter noun in the nominative singular, the adjective changes from its dictionary form gagnlegur to the neuter form gagnlegt.
What is the dictionary form of nemandanum, and why does it end in -num?
The base form is nemandi (student), which is a weak masculine noun. In the dative case, nemandi changes to nemanda. To say "the student" in the dative, you add the definite article suffix -num to the end, giving us nemandanum.
How is the compound word umræðuefni built?
It is made of two nouns: umræða (discussion) and efni (topic, material). To stick them together, the first word usually takes the genitive (possessive) case. The genitive of umræða is umræðu, which connects to efni to literally mean "topic of discussion."

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