Breakdown of Guðfaðir hans talaði við tengdason minn áðan.
tala
to speak
minn
my (m, f, n: minn, mín, mitt)
áðan
earlier
hans
his
við
with (talking with)
tengdasonurinn
the son-in-law
guðfaðirinn
the godfather
Questions & Answers about Guðfaðir hans talaði við tengdason minn áðan.
Why do we say Guðfaðir hans instead of Guðfaðirinn hans?
This is a special rule for family members. When you use a possessive word (like hans or minn) with a kinship noun, the noun stays bare and does not get the definite article (the -inn part) attached to the end.
Why is the word for son-in-law written as tengdason instead of tengdasonur?
The preposition við (with) forces the noun that follows it into the accusative case. The dictionary form is tengdasonur, but masculine nouns ending in -ur often drop that ending in the accusative case, becoming tengdason.
Why is the word for "my" spelled minn here?
Possessive pronouns for "my" have to match their noun's case, gender, and number. Because tengdason is a masculine, singular noun in the accusative case, the matching form for "my" is minn.
Wait, if minn changes to match its noun, why doesn't hans change to match Guðfaðir?
Words like minn (my) and þinn (your) act like adjectives and change their endings to agree with nouns. However, hans (his) and hennar (her) are actually the "of him" and "of her" forms of the pronouns hann and hún. They are locked in this form and never change to match the noun.
How exactly is the word áðan used? Can I use it for something that happened last week?
No, áðan specifically means "earlier today" or "just a moment ago." If you are talking about something that happened yesterday or last week, you would have to use a different time word.
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