Heil Arlie :)

> But you are right, I could write some things in O/M Icelandic.
> (The above sentence, for example, though Oskar and Haukur might
> find my attempts quite hilarious.) And maybe it would be good
> for me.
>
> Hmm, let's see, literally...
>
> En þú er skyldr, ek kann gjora sumir með máli islenzku.
>
> OK, Haukur, you can stop laughing now. I've no idea if skyldr can

mean

> "right" as in "correct", or what preposition really applies to using
> something like a language. And I took a wild guess at what gender

to

> put sumr in, to agree with an implied "things".

Thank you for this very entertaining attempt at a sentence! :o) :þ

Ok, there are some mistakes that you shouldn't make there:

* "þú ert", not "þú er".
* Your guess at the usage of "sumr" is not correct, but it was a good
guess; however, I'd have expected you to use the accusative, "suma".

I'll entertain you with a further analysis of the mistakes, which you
very understandably made:

* "skyldr" as an adjective means 'related'. In ON, there is no
adjective to mean 'right' as the word does above, i.e. "saying
something correct". "Réttr" means 'correct', but only the fact can be
correct, not its presenter. The English usage of the word is rather
idiomatic, and not to be expected to work in other languages. The
usual phrase for this meaning is "at hafa rétt fyrir sér"; so you'd
say, in the context above, "En þú hefir rétt fyrir þér,"
* In order to imply "things" with adjectives, one uses the singular
neuter. The form would therefore be "sumt" (which is both the nom and
acc form).

That corrected, your sentence would be like this:

"En þú hefir rétt fyrir þér, ek kann gjöra sumt með máli íslenzku."

Grammatically correct, but still rather unusual. I'd express the same
in this way:

"En þú hefir rétt fyrir þér, sumt kann ek mæla íslenzkri tungu."

("tungu" = weak fem dat sg 'tongue', "íslenzkri" = def fem dat sg
of 'Icelandic')

But of course, none of you is to worry about any of this. The lessons
will reach that point in time, just "tread the path" :)

Óskar