Breakdown of Hún segist eiga leyniskjalið.
hún
she
eiga
to own / to have (a relationship)
segjast
to claim (about oneself)
leyniskjalið
the secret document
Questions & Answers about Hún segist eiga leyniskjalið.
Why does segist translate to "claims to" instead of "says"?
The middle voice verb segjast literally means "to say of oneself". When someone says something about themselves that might not be verified, English often translates this as "claims to". If you wanted to express that she says someone else owns it, you would use the active voice: hún segir að... (she says that...).
Why is there no að before the infinitive eiga?
Middle-voice reporting verbs like segjast (to say of oneself) and þykjast (to pretend) take a bare infinitive. This means the infinitive verb eiga connects directly to the main verb without the infinitive marker að.
Does the middle-voice verb segist affect the case of leyniskjalið?
No. The noun leyniskjalið is the direct object of the infinitive verb eiga (to own), which always governs the accusative case. The main verb segist only connects to its nominative subject (hún) and doesn't change the case rules for the verbs that follow it.
How is the compound word leyniskjalið constructed?
It combines the prefix leyni- (secret) with skjalið (the document). Because skjal is a neuter noun, it takes the neuter definite article suffix -ið, which looks exactly the same here because the word is in the accusative case.
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