Breakdown of Tollvörðurinn finnur vindilinn. Við felum hann ekki.
hann
he
ekki
not
við
we
finna
to find
fela
to hide
tollvörðurinn
the customs officer
vindillinn
the cigar
Questions & Answers about Tollvörðurinn finnur vindilinn. Við felum hann ekki.
Why is hann placed before ekki in the second sentence?
This is a perfect example of "object shift." In Icelandic main clauses, if the object is an unstressed pronoun like hann, it usually shifts to appear before sentence adverbs like ekki. If the object were a regular noun, it would come after the adverb: Við felum ekki vindilinn (We do not hide the cigar). But because it's a pronoun, it becomes Við felum hann ekki.
Why does vindilinn only have one 'l' in the middle, when the base word is vindill (cigar)?
For masculine nouns ending in -ill, like vindill, the second 'l' is actually part of the nominative ending, not the root of the word. When the word takes the accusative case here (because it's the object being found by the officer), it drops that nominative 'l', becoming vindil. Adding the definite article -inn gives us vindilinn.
Why do we use hann (him) to mean "it" here?
In Icelandic, pronouns must always match the grammatical gender of the noun they replace. Since vindill (cigar) is a masculine noun, we must use the masculine pronoun hann to refer back to it, even though in English we simply translate it as "it".
What is the breakdown of the word Tollvörðurinn?
It is a compound of tollur (customs or toll) and vörður (guard or watchman), plus the masculine definite article -inn. You will see the word vörður at the end of many Icelandic professions, such as lífvörður (bodyguard) or fangavörður (prison guard).
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