Questions & Answers about Barnið reif bókina mína.
What verb does reif come from, and why does the vowel change?
It is the past tense of rífa (to tear). Rífa is a strong verb, meaning it changes its core vowel in the past tense rather than adding a regular ending, much like 'write' becoming 'wrote' in English. The í shifts to ei for the singular past tense.
Why do we say bókina mína (the book my) instead of just bók mína?
In Icelandic, when a possessive word like mína (my) comes after a noun, the noun usually takes the attached definite article. You literally say 'the book my'. Saying bók mína without the article is grammatically possible but sounds very formal or poetic, not like everyday speech.
Why do both bókina and mína have accusative endings?
They act as the direct object of the sentence because they are the things being torn. The verb rífa forces its object into the accusative case. Since bók is a feminine noun, it takes the feminine accusative definite article -ina, and the possessive pronoun must match it, becoming mína.