Questions & Answers about Ég skar mig óvart.
Why is the past tense of skera just skar without any ending?
Skera (to cut) is a strong verb. Strong verbs do not use typical past tense endings like -ði or -ti. Instead, they change their core vowel. Here, the e in skera changes to a, giving us skar. In the first person (ég) and third person (hann, hún, það), singular strong verbs do not have any ending added to them.
Why does the sentence use mig for "myself" instead of a special reflexive word?
In Icelandic, only the third person (he, she, it, they) gets a special reflexive pronoun, which is sig. For the first person (I, we) and second person (you), you simply use the normal object pronouns. Since skera requires the accusative case, "myself" is just the accusative word for "me", which is mig.
Does the word óvart change if a woman says this sentence?
No, it stays exactly the same. Óvart (accidentally) is an adverb here, describing how the action happened. Unlike adjectives, adverbs do not change their form to match the gender or number of the speaker.
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