Breakdown of Hver og einn fann björgunarvestið sitt og slapp skaðlaus.
og
and
einn
one
finna
to find
sinn
his/her/their own (sinn, sína, sitt)
sleppa
to let go, to escape / to avoid / get out of
hver
each / every
björgunarvestið
the life jacket
skaðlaus
unharmed
Questions & Answers about Hver og einn fann björgunarvestið sitt og slapp skaðlaus.
Why is sitt used here to mean 'their' instead of a plural pronoun like þeirra?
Even though hver og einn often translates to a plural concept in English, it is grammatically singular in Icelandic. Because the subject is the one who 'owns' the life jacket in this clause, we use the reflexive pronoun sinn, declined to the neuter accusative sitt to agree with björgunarvestið.
Hver og einn refers to a group of people. Why is the adjective skaðlaus in the masculine singular?
The verb sleppa often takes a dative object. Why doesn't it here?
Sleppa has two distinct usages. When it means 'to let go of' or 'to drop', it governs the dative case. But when it means 'to escape' or 'to get away', as it does in this sentence (slapp), it is an intransitive verb and does not take an object.
What is the grammar behind skaðlaus coming right after the action verb slapp?
It is a predicative adjective describing the state of the subject when the action happened. Even though slapp isn't a typical linking verb like 'to be', the adjective reaches back to describe the nominative subject (hver og einn), so skaðlaus must also be in the nominative case.
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