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Barnið klæðir sig í fötin.

Barnið klæðir sig í fötin.
The child puts on the clothes.
From Lesson 47:Third-person reflexive pronouns (sig, sér)·Icelandic

Questions & Answers about Barnið klæðir sig í fötin.

Why is the word sig in this sentence?
Sig is a reflexive pronoun that means "itself" (or himself/herself). In Icelandic, the verb að klæða means "to dress". To say someone gets dressed or puts clothes on, they literally "dress themselves". Since the subject (barnið) is acting upon itself, we use sig.
Would the word sig change if the sentence was about multiple children?
Actually, no! One of the nice things about sig is that it stays exactly the same for plural third-person subjects. If the sentence was "The children put on the clothes", it would still use sig: Börnin klæða sig í fötin.
Why do we need the preposition í here? Doesn't the sentence just mean "The child puts on the clothes"?
Yes, but Icelandic structures this action differently. The set phrase is að klæða sig í something, which translates literally to "to dress oneself in" something. You must include í (in/into) when you are naming the clothes being put on.
Both barnið and fötin have extra letters at the end. How do these endings work?
In Icelandic, the word "the" is attached directly to the end of the noun. Barn (child) gets the neuter singular ending -ið to become barnið (the child). The base word for clothes is föt, and it gets the neuter plural ending -in to become fötin (the clothes).

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