Breakdown of Ég greiði mér og nota hárblásarann.
og
and
ég
I
mér
me (dative)
nota
to use
greiða
to comb
hárblásarinn
the hairdryer
Questions & Answers about Ég greiði mér og nota hárblásarann.
Why does this sentence use mér instead of a special reflexive word for "myself"?
In Icelandic, there are no special reflexive pronouns (like "myself" or "yourself") for the 1st and 2nd person. You simply use the regular object pronouns. The verb greiða (to comb) takes a dative object when referring to the person being combed, so you use the dative pronoun mér to say "myself". Only the 3rd person has a dedicated reflexive pronoun (sig/sér/sín).
The English translation says "my hair", but I don't see the word for hair (hár) in the Icelandic sentence. Why?
In Icelandic, the phrase að greiða sér (to comb oneself) is the standard way to say you are brushing or combing your hair. Saying Ég greiði mér literally means "I comb myself." It is completely understood to mean hair, so you don't need to add the word hár to the sentence.
Why is hárblásari (hairdryer) written as hárblásarann here?
Two things are happening here. First, the verb nota (to use) requires its object to be in the accusative case, which changes the masculine word hárblásari to hárblásara. Second, we are saying "the" hairdryer, so we add the masculine accusative definite suffix -nn, giving us hárblásarann.
Why isn't the pronoun ég repeated before nota?
Just like in English, when you have two actions performed by the same subject connected by og (and), you can usually drop the pronoun before the second verb. Since Ég is doing both the combing and the using, Ég greiði mér og nota... sounds perfectly natural.
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