Log inSign up

Hárið hennar er mjög langt og fallegt.

Hárið hennar er mjög langt og fallegt.
Her hair is very long and beautiful.
From Lesson 47:Third-person reflexive pronouns (sig, sér)·Icelandic

Questions & Answers about Hárið hennar er mjög langt og fallegt.

The lesson is about reflexive pronouns. Why do we use hennar (her) here instead of the reflexive possessive sín?
Reflexive pronouns are used to show that an object belongs to the subject of the sentence. In this sentence, Hárið hennar (Her hair) IS the subject! Because there isn't a separate person acting in the sentence to reflect back to, we use the regular possessive word hennar.
Why does the sentence say Hárið hennar (the hair her) instead of putting the word for 'her' first?
In Icelandic, it is most common to put the possessive word after the noun. When you do this, the noun almost always takes the definite article (the attached 'the' ending). So, instead of saying 'her hair', you literally say 'the-hair of-her' (Hárið hennar).
How does the word hár (hair) become hárið?
In Icelandic, the word 'the' is added to the end of the noun as a suffix. Because hár is a neuter noun, it takes the neuter definite article ending -ið.
Why do the adjectives langt (long) and fallegt (beautiful) end in -t?
Adjectives change their endings to match the gender of the noun they describe. Since hár is a neuter noun, both adjectives take the standard neuter singular ending -t. (If you look them up in a dictionary, you will see their standard masculine forms: langur and fallegur).

Learn Hárið hennar er mjög langt og fallegt and more in Icelandic

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning Icelandic →