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Questions & Answers about Hver opnar hurðina?
Why does "the door" translate to a single word, hurðina?
In Icelandic, the word for "the" isn't a separate word like in English. Instead, it gets attached to the end of the noun as a suffix. The base word for "door" is hurð, and adding the definite article to the end makes it hurðina in this specific sentence.
Why is the ending -ina instead of just -in?
The word hurð is a feminine noun. If it were the doer of the action (the subject), "the door" would be hurðin. But here, the door is the object receiving the action of being opened, so it must take the accusative case. For feminine definite nouns in the accusative case, the ending becomes -ina, giving us hurðina.
The English translation says "is opening", but is opnar just one word?
Yes! Icelandic generally doesn't use a separate "is doing" tense. The present tense verb opnar can mean either "opens" or "is opening" depending on what makes the most sense in the context.
Why does the verb opnar take the "he/she/it" form here?
The question word hver (who) is treated grammatically as a third-person singular subject. Because we don't know who is opening the door yet, the verb defaults to the same form you would use for "he" or "she", which is opnar.