Breakdown of Ég heyri tónskáldið spila eitt af nýju lögunum.
ég
I
nýr
new
spila
to play
einn
one
heyra
to hear
lagið
the song
af
of (in quantity expressions)
tónskáldið
the composer
Questions & Answers about Ég heyri tónskáldið spila eitt af nýju lögunum.
Why does this sentence use eitt af instead of einn af?
The word for "one" needs to match the gender of the thing you are extracting from the group. Here, it refers to a "song", which is the neuter noun lag. Therefore, you must use the neuter form eitt. Even though the noun shows up right after in the dative plural (lögunum), eitt still reflects its base neuter gender.
Why is the noun lögunum in the dative case here?
In partitive constructions meaning "one of [a group]", the preposition af always requires the following noun phrase to be in the dative case. Lögunum is the dative plural definite form of the neuter noun lag.
Why is the adjective nýju rather than nýjum if it is in the dative plural?
Because lögunum is definite (it includes the attached "the"), the adjective before it must use the weak form. For all genders in the dative plural, the weak adjective ending is -u, giving us nýju. If you were talking about indefinite "new songs", it would take the strong ending: af nýjum lögum.
How does the grammar work for "hear the composer play"?
This uses a pattern called "accusative with infinitive," which works almost exactly like English. The main verb heyri takes an accusative object (tónskáldið), followed directly by the infinitive verb (spila). It is a very common way to express perceiving someone doing an action.
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