Breakdown of Systur minni finnst hauskúpan sín dýrmæt.
finnast
to find, to think
minn
my (m, f, n: minn, mín, mitt)
systirin
the sister
sinn
his/her/their own (sinn, sína, sitt)
dýrmætur
precious
hauskúpan
the skull
Questions & Answers about Systur minni finnst hauskúpan sín dýrmæt.
Why do we use the reflexive sín here instead of hennar?
Even though Systur minni is in the dative case, it acts as the logical subject of the sentence (a quirky subject). In Icelandic, these oblique subjects still trigger the reflexive possessive sinn (here sín) when they own something in the sentence. If we used hennar, it would mean the sister finds someone else's skull precious.
Why is Systur minni in the dative case?
The middle voice verb finnast (to find, to think, or to seem) requires a dative subject. The person holding the opinion is always in the dative case, while the thing being evaluated is in the nominative.
If the subject is dative, why is sín in the nominative case?
While sín points back to the dative subject to show who owns the skull, its grammatical form must agree with the noun it modifies. Because hauskúpan is in the nominative case, the possessive pronoun attached to it must be the feminine singular nominative form sín.
What does the adjective dýrmæt agree with in this sentence?
It agrees with hauskúpan. When using finnast to express an opinion, the descriptive adjective must match the object being evaluated in gender, number, and case. Since hauskúpan is a feminine singular nominative noun, dýrmæt takes the matching feminine singular nominative form.
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