Breakdown of Hver og einn hefur persónulegan stíl.
hafa
to have
stíllinn
the style
hver og einn
each and every one
persónulegur
personal
Questions & Answers about Hver og einn hefur persónulegan stíl.
Why is hver og einn in the masculine form here if it refers to people in general?
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)?
The verb hafa (to have) always forces its object into the accusative case. The noun stíll is masculine, and in the accusative singular it drops the nominative double L to become stíl. Its matching adjective persónulegur follows suit, taking the masculine accusative ending to become persónulegan.
Why is the adjective persónulegan using the strong declension here?
In Icelandic, an adjective takes the strong declension unless it is pointed out by a definite article or a specific pronoun like this or that. Since stíl stands alone without any defining words in front of it, the adjective uses the strong masculine accusative ending -an.
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