Breakdown of Ég hef keppt á mótinu hennar.
ég
I
á
onto / on / in (static location) / on (a day of the week)
hennar
her / hers (genitive)
hafa
to have
keppa
to compete
mótið
the tournament
Questions & Answers about Ég hef keppt á mótinu hennar.
How is the supine form keppt made here?
The verb keppa (to compete) is a Group 2 weak verb. For these verbs, the supine (used after the helping verb hafa to mean you have done something) is usually formed by dropping the -a from the infinitive and adding -t. So, keppa becomes keppt.
Why is mótinu in the dative case?
The preposition á takes the dative case when you are talking about being located at an event or place, rather than moving towards it. Since you competed at the tournament, the neuter noun mót (tournament) takes its dative definite ending -inu, making it mótinu.
Why does hennar come after mótinu?
In Icelandic, possessive words like hennar (her) usually come directly after the noun they own, and that noun must have the definite article attached. That is why it is mótinu hennar (literally: the tournament her).
Does hennar change to match the case or gender of mótinu?
No. Because hennar is just the genitive form of the pronoun hún (she), it is fixed. Unlike the words for my or your, third-person ownership words for his, her, and their (hans, hennar, þeirra) never change to match the noun they are attached to.
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