Question 1

Why use er farinn að here instead of just saying ég byrjaði að?

Accepted Answer

The construction vera farinn að combined with an infinitive is a very common way to express that a continuous action or habit has begun and is still ongoing. While ég byrjaði að simply states the past event of starting, er farinn að emphasizes your current state in this new routine. Remember that the participle must agree with the subject; a male speaker says ég er farinn, while a female speaker would say ég er farin.

Question 2

The literal translation says washing hárið (the hair). Why not say my hair?

Accepted Answer

In Icelandic, it is standard practice to use just the definite article for body parts when ownership is obvious from the context. Saying mitt hár here would sound unnaturally emphatic, as if you needed to clarify that you are not washing someone else's hair.

Question 3

Why is the phrase þessu dýra sjampói in the dative case?

Accepted Answer

The preposition með governs the dative case when it indicates the tool or instrument used to perform an action. Since you are washing your hair by means of the shampoo, the demonstrative pronoun þetta, the adjective dýrt, and the neuter noun sjampó all change to their dative forms.

Question 4

Why does the adjective take the form dýra instead of dýru?

Accepted Answer

Because the adjective follows the demonstrative pronoun þessu (this), it is forced into the weak declension. For masculine and neuter nouns in the singular, the weak dative ending for adjectives is -a. Since sjampó is a neuter noun, the phrase becomes þessu dýra sjampói.

Ég er farinn að þvo hárið með þessu dýra sjampói.

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