Breakdown of Ert þú heima hjá frænku þinni núna?
vera
to be
þú
you
heima
at home
núna
now
þinn
your (m, f, n: þinn, þín, þitt)
hjá
next to / at (someone's) place, with
frænkan
the aunt
Questions & Answers about Ert þú heima hjá frænku þinni núna?
Why is "your" written as þinni here?
Because it has to match the noun it belongs to, frænku, which is feminine and in the dative case. The preposition hjá (at/with) forces the following words into the dative case. For the pronoun þinn (your), the dative feminine singular form is þinni.
Why does the word for "your" (þinni) come after "aunt" (frænku)?
In Icelandic, possessive pronouns usually come immediately after the noun they belong to. Putting them before the noun is allowed but it adds strong emphasis, which we don't need in a simple question like this.
Why does the sentence use hjá for "with"?
The phrase heima hjá literally translates to "at home by" or "at home with", but it is the standard Icelandic way to say "at someone's house". So heima hjá frænku þinni effectively means "at your aunt's house".
Why is the word for aunt spelled frænku instead of frænka?
The base word frænka is a feminine noun. Nouns in this group that end in -a change their ending to -u in the dative case. Because the preposition hjá requires the dative case, frænka becomes frænku.
Why do we use heima instead of heim?
You use heima when talking about being in a stationary location (at home), which is what we need here since the person just "is" there. You would use heim if there was movement involved, like walking or driving home.
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