Breakdown of Hún hélt áfram þrátt fyrir mikinn kulda.
hún
she
halda áfram
to continue, keep going (halda áfram)
mikill
great, much (adjective: snjórinn er mikill)
kuldinn
the cold
þrátt fyrir
despite (+ Accusative)
Questions & Answers about Hún hélt áfram þrátt fyrir mikinn kulda.
Does þrátt fyrir always take the accusative case?
Yes. The prepositional phrase þrátt fyrir (meaning "despite" or "in spite of") strictly governs the accusative case. That is why the following noun phrase is the accusative mikinn kulda instead of the nominative mikill kuldi.
How does the verb phrase hélt áfram translate to "continued"?
It comes from the phrasal verb að halda áfram, which is the standard way to express "to continue" in Icelandic (literally translating as "to hold forward"). Hélt is the third-person singular past tense of the strong verb halda.
Why does the adjective mikill change to mikinn in this sentence?
Adjectives in Icelandic must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. Because kuldi is a masculine singular noun placed in the accusative case by the preposition, the adjective mikill must take its masculine accusative singular form, which is mikinn.
Is kulda the dictionary form of the word for "cold"?
No, the dictionary (nominative) form is kuldi. It is a weak masculine noun. Weak masculine nouns typically end in -i in the nominative case, but change their ending to -a across the accusative, dative, and genitive cases.
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