Breakdown of Hundurinn sem hann er að benda á er lítill.
vera
to be
hundurinn
the dog
hann
he
lítill
small / a little (small amount)
Questions & Answers about Hundurinn sem hann er að benda á er lítill.
Why is the preposition á sitting by itself before the second er?
This is called preposition stranding. Just like in English (the dog that he is pointing at), Icelandic leaves the preposition at the end of the relative clause. Here, á goes with the verb benda to mean point at, and it gets stranded right before the main sentence continues with er lítill.
Does the preposition á change the case of any word in this sentence?
Normally, benda á forces the following noun into the accusative case. However, because we are using the relative word sem to connect the sentence, the object of the preposition is implied. The word sem never changes form, so we do not see any case changes here.
Could we say sem hann bendir á instead of sem hann er að benda á?
Grammatically yes, but it changes the meaning. The phrase er að benda is the continuous form meaning is pointing right at this moment. If you use the simple present bendir, it means that he points at as a general habit, which makes less sense for describing what he is doing right now.
Why does the sentence end with lítill rather than lítið?
Adjectives have to match the noun they describe. Since hundurinn is a masculine noun in the nominative case, the adjective must take the masculine nominative form, which is lítill.