Learn Icelandic: Maður forðast svartan kött af því að maður hræðist ógæfuna. - You avoid a black cat because you fear bad luck.

In Icelandic, maður is often used as an impersonal pronoun, similar to the general "you" or "one" in English. It refers to people in general rather than a specific person, as in "one avoids a black cat."

Which verb form do we use after the impersonal maður?

Even though it translates to "you" here, maður is grammatically a third-person singular noun. Therefore, it always takes the third-person singular form of the verb, just like "he" or "she" would.

Why do the verbs forðast and hræðist end in -st?

These are called middle voice verbs. While the -st ending sometimes means doing something to each other (like "we meet"), verbs like forðast (to avoid) and hræðist (to fear) just naturally end in -st in all their forms. You just have to memorize them with the ending built in.

Why is it svartan kött instead of the dictionary form svartur köttur?

The verb forðast requires its object to be in the accusative case. Because köttur (cat) is a masculine noun, both the adjective and the noun change to their accusative forms: svartur becomes svartan and köttur becomes kött.