Breakdown of Hann skammast sín fyrir dónaskapinn.
hann
he
fyrir
for (fyrir þig)
skammast sín
to be ashamed
dónaskapurinn
the rudeness
Questions & Answers about Hann skammast sín fyrir dónaskapinn.
Why is sín used after skammast instead of sig or sér?
The verb skammast (to be ashamed) specifically requires its reflexive pronoun to be in the genitive case. While many reflexive verbs take the accusative (sig) or dative (sér), verbs like skammast take the genitive. For the third person (he, she, it, they), the genitive reflexive pronoun is always sín.
If I wanted to say 'I am ashamed of the rudeness,' would I still use sín?
No, sín is strictly for the third person. Because skammast forces the pronoun into the genitive case, you must use the genitive form of whatever pronoun matches the subject. 'I am ashamed' would be Ég skammast mín, and 'we are ashamed' would be Við skömmumst okkar.
Why does this sentence use the preposition fyrir instead of a word for 'of'?
What case is dónaskapinn, and how is it formed?
It is in the accusative case, governed by the preposition fyrir. The base noun is dónaskapur (rudeness), a masculine noun formed from dóni (a rude person) and the suffix -skapur (similar to '-ness' or '-ship'). Masculine nouns ending in -ur typically drop the -ur in the accusative, leaving dónaskap, and then the accusative definite article -inn is attached to get dónaskapinn.
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