Breakdown of Hún hefur safnað minjagripum.
hún
she
hafa
to have
safna
to collect
minjagripurinn
the souvenir
Questions & Answers about Hún hefur safnað minjagripum.
How do we form the present perfect tense "has collected" here?
It works very similarly to English! You conjugate the auxiliary verb hafa (to have) for hún, giving us hefur. Then you follow it with the supine form of the main verb, which is safnað.
How exactly do we get the supine form safnað from the infinitive safna?
Safna (to collect) is a regular Group 1 weak verb. For these verbs, you form the supine simply by changing the infinitive ending -a to -að.
Why does minjagripum (souvenirs) end in -um?
The verb safna is one of those Icelandic verbs that requires its object to be in the dative case, rather than the regular accusative. Since she is collecting multiple souvenirs, the noun takes the dative plural ending -um.
What are the parts of the compound word minjagripum?
It combines minja (memories or relics) and gripum (the dative plural of gripur, meaning an item or artifact). So a memory-artifact translates perfectly to a souvenir.
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