Word
Hann reyndi að kenna mér.
Meaning
He tried to teach me.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Hann reyndi að kenna mér.
hann
he
mér
me (dative)
að
to (infinitive marker)
reyna
to try (attempt)
Questions & Answers about Hann reyndi að kenna mér.
Why does the past tense of reyna end in -di (reyndi) instead of -ði or -ti?
The verb reyna (to try) is a weak verb that forms its past tense with a suffix. Because the stem ends in the voiced consonant n, it takes the -di ending.
Would reyndi change if the subject was I instead of he?
No, it would look exactly the same! For these weak verbs in the simple past tense, the forms for ég (I), hann (he), hún (she), and það (it) are identical.
What is the purpose of að in this sentence?
Here, að is the infinitive marker, just like the word to in English. It links the main verb reyndi (tried) with the action being attempted, kenna (teach), creating the phrase að kenna (to teach).
Why is the word for me mér instead of mig?
The verb kenna (to teach) forces the person being taught into the dative case. Therefore, the basic pronoun ég (I) changes to its dative form, mér.