Word
Þú hefur týnt vegabréfinu þínu.
Meaning
You have lost your passport.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Þú hefur týnt vegabréfinu þínu.
þú
you
þinn
your (m, f, n: þinn, þín, þitt)
hafa
to have
vegabréfið
the passport
Questions & Answers about Þú hefur týnt vegabréfinu þínu.
How do we form the supine týnt from the infinitive týna?
Týna (to lose) is a Group 2 weak verb. To form the supine (the form used after the helper verb hafa), you take the stem of the verb and add -t. The stem of týna is týn-, so adding -t gives us týnt.
Why is the passport in the dative case (vegabréfinu) instead of the accusative?
The verb týna (to lose) governs the dative case. This is a quirk to memorize: whatever object you lose in Icelandic must take the dative form, even though it acts as the direct object of the sentence.
Why is it vegabréfinu þínu instead of just vegabréfi þínu?
In Icelandic, when a possessive word like þínu (your) comes immediately after the noun it describes, that noun must take the definite article. So you are literally saying 'the passport your' (vegabréfinu þínu).
Why does the word for 'your' take the form þínu here?
Possessives must agree with their nouns in gender, number, and case. Vegabréf is a neuter noun, and here it is singular and in the dative case. The neuter, singular, dative form of þinn (your) is þínu.