Breakdown of Fréttamaðurinn skrifaði greinina sína, enda var hneykslið áhugavert.
vera
to be
skrifa
to write
áhugaverður
interesting
sinn
his/her/their own (sinn, sína, sitt)
greinin
the article
enda
seeing that
hneykslið
the scandal
fréttamaðurinn
the reporter
Questions & Answers about Fréttamaðurinn skrifaði greinina sína, enda var hneykslið áhugavert.
How does enda differ from just using því (because) here?
While both can introduce a reason, enda adds a strong sense of logical agreement or expectation. It translates closer to 'and indeed' or 'which makes sense, seeing that.' It shows that the reporter writing the article is the natural, expected result of the scandal being so interesting.
Why does the verb var come before the subject hneykslið in the second clause?
Even though enda is a coordinating conjunction, it frequently triggers inverted word order in the clause that follows it. This means the verb and subject swap places, giving us enda var hneykslið instead of the standard subject-verb order you might normally expect.
Since the reporter is a man, why do we use sína instead of hans for 'his'?
Because the reporter is the subject of the sentence and he is writing his own article, Icelandic requires the reflexive possessive sinn. If you used hans, it would imply he was writing some other man's article! It takes the form sína to agree with the feminine, accusative noun greinina.
Why is the word for 'interesting' written as áhugavert rather than áhugaverður?
Adjectives must match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe. Because hneykslið (the scandal) is a neuter noun, the adjective drops the masculine ending and takes the neuter singular ending -t, becoming áhugavert.
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