Breakdown of Kennarinn svarar henni strax.
kennarinn
the teacher
strax
right away
svara
to answer
henni
her (dative)
Questions & Answers about Kennarinn svarar henni strax.
Why is henni used here instead of the accusative form hana?
In Icelandic, the verb svara (to answer) requires the person or thing being answered to be in the dative case. You can think of it as answering to someone. Henni is the dative form of hún (she).
Why does kennarinn end in -nn?
The base word is kennari (a teacher). In Icelandic, the definite article (the word for "the") is attached to the end of the noun as a suffix. Adding -nn makes it kennarinn (the teacher).
If I wanted to say "The teacher answers him", how would the sentence change?
You would swap henni for the dative form of the pronoun hann (he), which is honum. The sentence would become Kennarinn svarar honum strax.
Can I put strax at the beginning of the sentence to emphasize it?
You can, but remember the V2 rule, which means the verb must usually be the second idea in the sentence. If you start with strax, the verb svarar must come immediately after it, making it Strax svarar kennarinn henni.