Breakdown of Hún hefur svarað spurningunum.
hún
she
svara
to answer
spurningin
the question (f)
hafa
to have
Questions & Answers about Hún hefur svarað spurningunum.
How do we get the form svarað from the verb svara?
Svara is a Group 1 weak verb, which means its present tense ends in -ar (like hún svarar). To make the supine (the form used after hafa), Group 1 verbs always take the ending -að. So, the stem svar- gets this ending to become svarað.
Is the present perfect tense formed the same way in Icelandic as in English?
Yes, in this case it matches English perfectly! You use the present tense of hafa (here, hefur for 'she has') followed by the supine form of the main verb (svarað). It is used to describe a past event that is relevant to the present.
Why is the word for the questions (spurningunum) in the dative case?
In Icelandic, certain verbs dictate the case of the object following them. The verb svara (to answer) always forces its object into the dative case, rather than the accusative case you might normally expect for a direct object.
Can you break down the long ending on spurningunum?
The base word is spurning (question), which is a feminine noun. In the plural dative case, it takes the ending -um, giving us spurningum (questions). To say 'the questions', we attach the plural dative definite article -num to the end, resulting in the mouthful spurningunum.
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