Learn Icelandic: Njóti hann starfsloka sinna! - May he enjoy his retirement!

Njóti is the present subjunctive form of njóta (to enjoy). As you are learning in this lesson, we use the present subjunctive at the beginning of a main clause to express a wish or a blessing, translating roughly to "May he..." or "Let him...".

Why is the object starfsloka sinna in the genitive case instead of the accusative?

The verb njóta is one of those special verbs that rules (or "governs") the genitive case. Whenever you enjoy something in Icelandic, that thing must take the genitive form.

Why use sinna for "his" rather than hans?

We use the reflexive possessive pronoun sinn (here in the genitive plural form sinna) because the retirement belongs to the subject of the sentence (hann). If you used hans, it would imply he is enjoying some other man's retirement!

The word for retirement, starfslok, looks like it is plural here. Is it?

Yes! It is a compound of starf (work) and lok (end). In Icelandic, lok is almost always used in the plural when meaning "the end" or "conclusion" of something. So, starfsloka is the genitive plural form.