Learn Icelandic: Hver og einn hefur persónulegan stíl. - Each and every one has a personal style.

When making a general statement about individuals in an unspecified group, Icelandic defaults to the masculine singular form hver og einn. If you were talking exclusively about a group of women, it would change to hver og ein, and for neuter nouns like börn (children), it would be hvert og eitt.

Does the phrase hver og einn always take a singular verb?

Yes. Even though it encompasses everyone in a group, grammatically it focuses on each individual person. Therefore, the verb must be in the third-person singular, which is why we use hefur instead of the plural hafa.

If this phrase were in a different case, would both words decline?

Exactly. Both hver (each/who) and einn (one) are pronouns that decline fully. If the phrase were the object of a sentence rather than the subject, both words would take the accusative case, becoming hvern og einn. Here they are in the nominative because they act as the subject.

Why does stíl drop the second L that it has in its dictionary form (stíll)?