Breakdown of Ef taskan er gerð úr leðri er hún dýr.
vera
to be
hún
she
gera
to do / to make (something) + adjective
taskan
the bag
dýr
expensive
ef
if
úr
of (material)
leðrið
the leather
Questions & Answers about Ef taskan er gerð úr leðri er hún dýr.
Why is the word for made spelled gerð instead of gert or gerður?
In this passive structure, the past participle acts like an adjective and must agree with the subject. The subject is taskan (the bag), which is feminine. So, the past participle of gera (to make) takes the feminine singular nominative form gerð.
Why does the second half say er hún dýr instead of hún er dýr?
This happens because of the V2 (verb-second) rule. The entire if-clause (Ef taskan er gerð úr leðri) counts as the first piece of information in the sentence. To keep the main verb (er) in the strict second position, the pronoun hún swaps places to come right after it.
Why does the word for leather change from leður to leðri?
The preposition úr (out of) always forces the noun following it into the dative case. Leðri is the dative form of the neuter noun leður.
Why use hún (she) to mean it here?
Pronouns in Icelandic must match the grammatical gender of the noun they refer to. Since taskan (the bag) is a feminine noun, you must use the feminine pronoun hún to refer back to it, even when translating it to English as it.
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