Breakdown of Hún rökstuddi ákvörðunina mjög vel.
hún
she
mjög
very
vel
well
ákvörðunin
the decision
rökstyðja
to justify, to argue for
Questions & Answers about Hún rökstuddi ákvörðunina mjög vel.
The verb rökstuddi looks like a compound word. What is it made of?
It comes from the infinitive rökstyðja. This is a very logical compound: rök means "reasons" or "arguments", and styðja means "to support". So to justify something in Icelandic is literally to "reason-support" it.
If the infinitive is rökstyðja, why does the vowel change to "u" in rökstuddi?
Styðja (to support) has a vowel shift in the past tense. Even though it acts like a regular verb by taking a past tense ending, its root vowel shifts from y to u. Therefore, hún rökstyður (she justifies) becomes hún rökstuddi (she justified).
Why is ákvörðunina in the accusative case here?
The verb rökstyðja takes a direct object in the accusative case. Since the decision is the thing being justified, it receives the action of the verb and must take the accusative form.
How exactly is the definite article attached to make ákvörðunina?
The base noun is ákvörðun (decision), which is a feminine word. In the accusative case, the word itself doesn't change from its dictionary form. However, because it ends in a consonant (-un), the feminine accusative definite article attached to it is -ina, giving us ákvörðunina (the decision).
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