Breakdown of Hún man að strákurinn var veikur.
vera
to be
hún
she
strákurinn
the boy
veikur
sick
að
that (conjunction)
muna
to remember
Questions & Answers about Hún man að strákurinn var veikur.
What is the role of að in this sentence?
Here, að means "that". It is a linking word (a subordinating conjunction) connecting the main action "she remembers" with the fact she is remembering: "the boy was sick". Notice that the word order after að stays normal, with the subject (strákurinn) coming right before the verb (var).
Why doesn't the verb man have a typical present tense ending like "-r"?
The verb muna (to remember) is part of a small group of irregular verbs in Icelandic. Its present tense forms actually look a bit like past tense forms, so for "I" and "he/she/it", the form is simply man instead of taking a regular ending like -r.
How do we know strákurinn means "the boy" and not just "a boy"?
In Icelandic, the word for "the" is usually attached to the end of the noun. The base word is strákur (boy), and adding the masculine ending -inn turns it into strákurinn (the boy).
Why does the adjective veikur end in -ur?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Since strákurinn (the boy) is a masculine noun, the adjective for "sick" takes the masculine ending -ur to become veikur. If it were describing a girl, it would just be veik.
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