Questions & Answers about Ég finn ekki gleraugun hans.
Why is hans placed after the noun instead of before it?
In Icelandic, possessive words like hans (his), hennar (her), and þeirra (their) almost always come after the noun they belong to. Because hans is actually just the "of him" form of the pronoun hann (he), it is invariable, meaning it never changes form to match the noun.
Why does the sentence use gleraugun (the glasses) instead of just gleraugu (glasses)?
When you use a possessive word like hans after a noun, Icelandic requires that noun to have the definite article attached to it. You are literally saying "the glasses his". If you just said gleraugu hans without the definite article, it would sound incorrect to an Icelandic speaker.
Is gleraugun a compound word?
Yes! The base word is gleraugu. It is a fun combination of gler (glass) and augu (eyes). The -n at the very end is the definite article making it "the glass eyes" (the glasses).
Why does ekki come before the object gleraugun hans?
In standard Icelandic word order, the negative word ekki (not) usually comes immediately after the verb and before the object. So you say Ég finn ekki... (I find not...) rather than putting ekki at the very end of the sentence.