Breakdown of Hver og einn verður að hætta að blekkja sjálfan sig og viðurkenna sökina.
og
and
að
to (infinitive marker)
einn
one
hætta
to stop
sig
himself/herself/themselves (acc)
verða að
to have to (verða að)
sjálfur
self, oneself
hver
each / every
viðurkenna
to admit
blekkja
to deceive
sökin
the fault
Questions & Answers about Hver og einn verður að hætta að blekkja sjálfan sig og viðurkenna sökina.
Why do we need sjálfan here? Wouldn't just sig work?
You could use just sig, but adding sjálfan creates an emphatic reflexive object. It stresses that the person is deceiving their own self rather than someone else. This extra emphasis is very common in Icelandic when talking about self-deception or self-reflection.
Why is sjálfan in the masculine accusative form?
The verb blekkja (to deceive) requires its object to be in the accusative case, which gives us sig. The emphatic word sjálfur must agree with the subject's gender and number. Since the general subject hver og einn (each and every one) is grammatically masculine singular, we use the masculine singular accusative form sjálfan.
If we were talking specifically about a group of women, how would the subject and the reflexive part of this sentence change?
The subject phrase would change to the feminine hver og ein. Because sjálfur has to agree with the subject's gender, the emphatic reflexive phrase would also change to the feminine singular accusative, becoming sjálfa sig.
How do we know viðurkenna (admit) links back to verður að (must) rather than hætta að (stop)?
It relies entirely on context! Grammatically, viðurkenna is an infinitive, so it could logically follow either verður að or hætta að. However, if it linked to hætta að, the sentence would mean the person must stop deceiving himself AND stop admitting the fault, which makes no logical sense.
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