Breakdown of Dvölin hjá honum er skemmtileg en heimþráin er slæm.
vera
to be
hann
he
en
but
skemmtilegur
fun
slæmur
bad
hjá
next to / at (someone's) place, with
dvölin
the stay
heimþráin
the homesickness
Questions & Answers about Dvölin hjá honum er skemmtileg en heimþráin er slæm.
Why do we use honum instead of hann here?
The preposition hjá always forces the noun or pronoun that follows it into the dative case. Honum is the dative form of hann (he). When you use hjá with a person, it usually translates to 'at their place' or 'with them', so hjá honum means 'at his place'.
What are the base forms of the nouns dvölin and heimþráin?
Both words have the feminine definite article -in attached to the end, which gives them the meaning of 'the'. If you remove the article, you get the base dictionary nouns: dvöl (stay) and heimþrá (homesickness).
How is the word heimþráin built?
It is a compound word. Heim means 'home' and þrá means 'desire' or 'longing'. When you put them together and add the definite article -in, you literally get 'the longing for home', which is homesickness!
Why do the adjectives skemmtileg and slæm not have any special endings?
In Icelandic, adjectives must match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe. Because dvölin and heimþráin are both feminine, singular, and in the nominative case (they are the subjects of the sentence), the adjectives use their feminine singular nominative forms: skemmtileg and slæm.
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