Breakdown of Valdhafinn undirritaði tilskipunina er hann breytti lögunum.
hann
he
breyta
to change
undirrita
to sign
er
when (formal)
valdhafinn
the ruler (person)
tilskipunin
the decree
lögin
the laws
Questions & Answers about Valdhafinn undirritaði tilskipunina er hann breytti lögunum.
Why is er used here instead of þegar for "when"?
er is a formal, written-register temporal conjunction that means the exact same thing as þegar. You will encounter it frequently in literature, historical texts, and formal news, but in everyday speech, you should stick to þegar.
Since er can also mean "is" or "which/that", how do I know it means "when" in this sentence?
You have to rely on context and sentence structure. Here, er connects two complete clauses that already have their own subjects and past-tense verbs (undirritaði and breytti). Reading it as "is" grammatically breaks the sentence, and reading it as the relative pronoun "which" makes no logical sense here.
Why is the word for "the laws" (lögunum) in the dative case here?
The verb breyta (to change or alter) governs the dative case, meaning its object must be dative. Therefore, the neuter plural word lög becomes lögunum with the dative definite article attached.
Is undirritaði the usual way to say someone signed something?
undirrita is a formal verb for signing a document, which perfectly matches the high-register tone of this sentence alongside words like tilskipun (decree) and the conjunction er. In everyday spoken Icelandic, you would instead use the phrasal verb skrifa undir.
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