Breakdown of Hún er með nýjan hatt og fallegt hálsmen.
vera
to be
og
and
hún
she
nýr
new
fallegur
beautiful
með
with
hatturinn
the hat
hálsmenið
the necklace
Questions & Answers about Hún er með nýjan hatt og fallegt hálsmen.
Why do we use er með here to mean "is wearing"?
The phrase vera með literally means "to be with", but it is the standard way in Icelandic to say you are wearing an item of clothing, carrying an object, or currently holding something. Therefore, Hún er með... naturally translates to "She is wearing..." in English.
What happened to the -ur at the end of the word for hat (hattur)?
The preposition með forces the following words into the accusative case. Masculine nouns that end in -ur in their dictionary form usually drop that ending in the accusative case. Because of this, hattur becomes hatt.
Why does the adjective nýr (new) change to nýjan?
Adjectives have to match the gender and case of the noun they describe. Since hatt is a masculine noun in the accusative case, the adjective nýr takes the masculine accusative ending, becoming nýjan.
Why does the adjective fallegt (beautiful) end in a -t?
This is also because of gender matching! Hálsmen (necklace) is a neuter noun. To match it, the base adjective fallegur drops its masculine ending and takes the neuter ending -t, becoming fallegt.
Did the word hálsmen change because of the accusative case like hatt did?
No, it didn't change at all. Hálsmen is a neuter noun, and a very handy rule in Icelandic is that all neuter nouns look exactly the same in the accusative case as they do in the nominative (dictionary) case.
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