Breakdown of Ég kallaði á hundinn minn.
hundurinn
the dog
ég
I
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
minn
my (m, f, n: minn, mín, mitt)
kalla
to call
Questions & Answers about Ég kallaði á hundinn minn.
How do we know kallaði is in the past tense?
The verb kallaði comes from kalla (to call). Because kalla is a Group 1 verb, we form the simple past for ég (I) by taking the stem of the verb and adding the past tense suffix -aði.
Why is the word á in this sentence when the English translation has no "on" or "at"?
In Icelandic, the verb kalla requires the preposition á when you are calling out to someone or something. You don't just call a dog, you "call on" a dog (kalla á).
Why does the sentence say hundinn minn (the dog my) instead of just hund minn?
In Icelandic, when you use a possessive word like minn (my), the noun it belongs to almost always needs the definite article (the "the" ending) attached to it. That is why "my dog" is phrased literally as "the-dog my".
Why is it hundinn minn here instead of the dictionary form hundurinn minn?
The preposition á forces the words following it to change into the accusative case. The basic subject form (nominative) is hundurinn minn, but in the accusative case, the masculine word hundur drops its -ur ending to become hund (and with the "the" ending attached, hundinn).
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