Breakdown of Kötturinn felur sig undir rúminu.
kötturinn
the cat
rúmið
the bed
undir
under
sig
himself/herself/themselves (acc)
Questions & Answers about Kötturinn felur sig undir rúminu.
Why is sig in this sentence when the English translation just says "hides"?
In Icelandic, the verb fela (to hide) requires a reflexive pronoun when a person or animal is hiding their own body. Without sig, the sentence would feel incomplete, as if the cat were hiding a toy but you forgot to mention what it was! The word sig acts as "itself" here.
Does sig change depending on the gender of the word köttur?
No, and that is the great thing about sig! It is the general third-person reflexive pronoun used for "himself", "herself", "itself", and even "themselves". Whether the subject is masculine, feminine, neuter, or plural, it stays sig in the accusative case.
Why does the word for bed (rúm) end with -inu in this sentence?
The word rúminu has the definite article ("the") attached to the end and is in the dative case. The preposition undir (under) forces the noun into the dative case when it describes a stationary location, like where the cat is currently resting or hiding.
Why is it Kötturinn and not just Köttur?
In Icelandic, the word for "the" is attached to the end of the noun rather than coming before it. Köttur means "a cat", so adding the masculine ending -inn turns it into Kötturinn ("the cat"). It is in the nominative case because the cat is the subject doing the action.