Breakdown of Af hverju er hann með hattinn? Hún svarar honum ekki.
vera
to be
hún
she
hann
he
ekki
not
honum
him (dative)
svara
to answer
með
with
af hverju
why
hatturinn
the hat
Questions & Answers about Af hverju er hann með hattinn? Hún svarar honum ekki.
I thought vera með meant 'to have' or 'to be with'. How does it mean 'wearing' here?
You're exactly right! Literally, this says 'Why is he with the hat?' In Icelandic, vera með is the standard way to talk about having something physically on you, which includes wearing clothing and accessories like hats, scarves, and glasses.
Why is the word for 'the hat' hattinn instead of hatturinn?
The phrase vera með requires the object following it to be in the accusative case. The masculine base word hattur (a hat) drops its -ur ending in the accusative to become hatt. To say 'the hat', we attach the accusative definite article -inn to the end, giving us hattinn.
Why does the second sentence use honum for 'him' instead of the accusative hann?
Some verbs in Icelandic demand a specific grammatical case for their objects. The verb svara (to answer) always forces the person being answered into the dative case. The dative form of hann (he) is honum.
Why does ekki go at the very end of the sentence?
In a simple Icelandic sentence, the negative word ekki (not) usually comes after the verb. However, when the object of the verb is a short pronoun like honum, the pronoun jumps ahead, pushing ekki to the end. So the natural word order here is verb (svarar) + pronoun (honum) + negative (ekki).
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