Learn Icelandic: Hún á heima í breiðum dal.

Hún á heima í breiðum dal.

She lives in a wide valley.

Breakdown of Hún á heima í breiðum dal.

hún

she

in / into / to (before the hour, in telling time) / per (in frequency expressions)

eiga heima

to have one's home (somewhere), to reside

dalurinn

the valley

Questions & Answers about Hún á heima í breiðum dal.

Why does breiður change to breiðum in this sentence?

The preposition í requires the dative case when describing a fixed location (where something is). Because the word for valley (dalur) is a masculine noun, the adjective breiður (wide) takes the strong masculine dative ending -um.

Doesn't the verb á mean 'owns'? Why is it translated as 'lives'?

You're exactly right! The word á comes from the verb eiga (to own). However, the phrase eiga heima literally means 'to own a home', and this is the standard, everyday Icelandic expression for 'to live' or 'to reside' somewhere.

Why is the word for valley dal here instead of dalur?

The word dal is the dative form of the masculine noun dalur. In Icelandic, most masculine nouns that end in -ur in their dictionary form simply drop that ending when they are in the accusative or dative case.

Why do we use the strong adjective form here instead of the weak one?

We use the strong adjective pattern because the noun is indefinite. She lives in 'a' wide valley, not 'the' wide valley. If the noun had the 'the' ending attached to it, or if it followed a word like 'this' or 'that', we would use the weak adjective pattern instead.