Introduction to Icelandic Grammar
The language of Iceland has changed so little over time that its structure is very close to Old Norse. In most ways, it's also a lot like Old English.
Grammar encompasses morphology (the way words are put together) and syntax (the way sentences are put together). We'll pay special attention to how we build Icelandic words below, since beginners find this particularly tricky.
This page has a several sections. Each section covers one grammatical topic. Please refresh your memory of parts of speech and grammar terms if needed.
Nouns & articles: the basics
In Icelandic, nouns have a basic form, like hestur horse.
The definite article (that little specifier word "the") is added to the end of the word. So, hesturinn means the horse.
There is no indefinite article (word for "a" or "an"). Since that's the case, hestur can also translate to a horse.
Number (singular & plural)
Like English nouns, Icelandic nouns have singular and plural variants. If we talk about one horse, we say hestur. But horses are hestar. And, if we add the definite article, we come up with hestarnir the horses.
singular |
plural |
hestur |
hestar |
hesturinn |
hestarnir |
Gender (masculine, feminine & neuter)
So far so good, but that's not the whole saga. You see, every Icelandic noun belongs to one of three genders. These are grammatical genders - groups or classes - and each noun belongs to only one of the three groups.
A hestur, for instance, belongs to the masculine group. A borg city is a feminine noun. Hús house is neuter. Believe it or not, Old English did the exact same thing. Learn nouns with their genders - it will come in handy later.
You already know that hestur changes in the plural, but so do most other Icelandic nouns. Take a look at nouns from all three genders in both the singular and plural:
masculine |
feminine |
neuter |
|
singular |
hestur |
borg |
hús |
plural |
hestar |
borgir |
hús |
The definite article suffix also changes based on the noun's gender. Compare the nouns with the article attached to the ones you just saw:
masculine |
feminine |
neuter |
|
singular |
hesturinn |
borgin |
húsið |
plural |
hestarnir |
borgirnar |
húsin |
Practice Activity
How would you say these words in Icelandic?
- the horses, city, the house, the cities, houses, the city
- The masculine noun hundur translates dog. What's the dog in Icelandic?
- The masculine noun vinur means friend. How do you say the friends in Icelandic?
- Neuter bein translates to bone. What's the Icelandic translation for the bone?
Subject pronouns
Icelandic pronouns work a lot like English ones. That's especially true when they're the subject of your sentence.
Person & number
We can think of pronouns as having two axes: x and y. If we think about them this way, our "y axis" is person, which relates the subject's distance from the speaker. Put simply, I am the first person, you are the second, and she is a third person. Our "x axis" is number, which relates how many people are involved: one (singular) or many (plural).
singular |
plural |
||
ég |
I |
við |
we |
þú |
you |
þið |
all of you |
hann |
he |
þeir |
they |
Gender
Wait! There's more! Just like Icelandic nouns, third person pronouns are masculine, feminine or neuter.
Use hann for he, hún for she and það for it. The word for they also changes: þeir (they men); þær (they women); þau (they things).
Practice Activity
Which Icelandic pronoun goes best with the following situations?
- Writing a story about your house.
- Talking about yourself.
- Speaking about a group of people including you.
- Hearing a news article about a group of women.
- Speaking about a famous male Icelander.
- Addressing a group of coworkers in a meeting.
- Talking about a group of men in another building.
- Calling your friend on the phone.
- Talking about your mother to a neighbor.
Verbs: the basics
The basic "dictionary form" of Icelandic starts with the word að and usually ends in a. So, when you look up or learn the verb to speak, you'll find að tala, to live is að lifa, and so on.
Verb conjugation
As in other European languages, the end of a verb (the a) changes to reflect who is performing the action. ég tala means I speak but hún talar is she speaks. This is how you would conjugate (list the forms) of að tala:
ég tala |
I speak |
við tölum |
we speak |
þú talar |
you speak |
þið talið |
you all speak |
hann talar |
he speaks |
þeir tala |
they speak |
The key is to use the right verb ending with the right pronoun. Also, notice that a in tala changes to ö in tölum. This is a normal shift whenever the second to last syllable has an -a- and the last syllable ends in -u or -um.
Tenses, aspects, moods
Verbs reflect the subject's person and number. They also tell you when and how something happens. Above, you learned verb forms for talking about things happening in the present.
When an action happened in the past, Icelandic speakers change the verb ending. This is like adding -ed to English verbs. Ég tala is I speak, but ég talaði means I spoke.
When an action will happen in the future, speakers use the basic form of the verb with the verb mun. This is like will in English. Hún talar is she speaks, but hún mun tala means she will speak.
Icelandic also has verb phrases that indicate not just when something happened but how it happened (called "aspect"). For example, þú talar is you speak, but þú er búinn að tala means you have just spoken (literally, "you are finished to speak").
Icelandic verbs can be used to issue commands (in the "imperative mood") and make counter-to-fact statements (in the "subjunctive mood"). For instance, þú talar means you speak, but talaðu! tells someone speak!
The verb að vera
The verb að vera to be is an everyday verb that works differently. It looks like this in the present:
ég er |
I am |
við erum |
we are |
þú ert |
you are |
þið eruð |
you all are |
hann/hún er |
he/she is |
þeir eru |
they are |
Of course, there's a lot more to verbs than this. If you'd like to dig deeper, I recommend "further resources" at the bottom of this page.
Practice Activity
The verb að baka to bake works like að tala.
- we bake
- you are baking (same as 'you bake')
- they bake
- I baked
- he will bake
- you all bake
- Bake!
Nouns with verbs
You know how to use nouns and pronouns when they're the subject of a verb: ég tala, hann er, etc. That's called the "nominative case" (or "subject") form of the noun.
When Icelandic nouns are the object of a verb, they often have an "accusative case" (or "direct object") ending. We can start a sentence with íslenska er... Icelandic is..., but we say ég tala íslensku I speak Icelandic.
Different genders have different nominative and accusative endings. Compare three sample nouns, one from each gender:
masculine |
feminine |
neuter |
|
nominative |
hestur |
enska |
hús |
accusative |
hest |
ensku |
hús |
horse |
English |
house |
Not all nouns work the same way. The feminine borg city is also borg in the accusative.
Now, compare three nouns with their indefinite article endings:
masculine |
feminine |
neuter |
|
nominative |
hesturinn |
borgin |
húsið |
accusative |
hestinn |
borgina |
húsið |
the horse |
the city |
the house |
Of course, keep in mind that there are both singular and plural nouns in the nominative, so there must be singular and plural nouns in the accusative:
masculine |
feminine |
neuter |
|
accus. sing. |
hestinn |
borgina |
húsið |
accus. pl. |
hestana |
borgirnar |
húsin |
the horses |
the cities |
the houses |
Even though the nominative and accusative have the same translation in English, remember that the way they're used in a sentence sets them apart. "Ég tala íslenska" (instead of the expected íslensku) sounds as awkward as "Icelandic speak I" in English.
We'll stop here for now, but you should know that pronouns also have accusative forms. See "further resources" at the bottom of the page to learn more.
Practice Activity
Tell us what you see with the phrase ég sé... I see... All these words have been used in at least one previous exercise.
- I see a horse.
- I see the dog.
- I see the cities.
- I see houses.
- I see a friend.
Nouns with prepositions
As in English, Icelandic prepositions are usually short words that relate nouns in time or space. The phrases above the hotel, in the restaurant and with us all contain a preposition.
These words are placed ("positioned") before ("pre") a noun. But here's the catch: the noun is the object of that preposition, so it can't be in the nominative (subject) case.
Fortunately, we just learned one object case: the accusative. And that works perfectly with some prepositions. The preposition um about is followed by an accusative noun: allt um hunda all about dogs; um borgina around the city.
Unfortunately, most prepositions don't govern the accusative case.
The dative case
The dative case is used with some prepositions and some verbs. Its name comes from Latin for "giving", a fitting name when it's used for the recipient of verbs. In you gave him skyr, the pronoun him represents the dative case. (Skyr, by the way, is Icelandic yogurt.)
When we know that the preposition frá from requires the dative, and the dative form of borgin the city is borginni, we can say frá borginni from the city.
Remember that noun forms vary based on number and gender, and the dative is no exception:
SINGULAR |
masculine |
feminine |
neuter |
nominative |
hestur |
borg |
hús |
accusative |
hesta |
borgir |
hús |
dative |
hesti |
borg |
húsi |
horse |
city |
house |
PLURAL |
masculine |
feminine |
neuter |
nominative |
hestar |
borgir |
hús |
accusative |
hesta |
borgir |
hús |
dative |
hestum |
borgum |
húsum |
horses |
cities |
houses |
Of course, we can include the dative definite article:
masculine |
feminine |
neuter |
|
dat. sing. |
hestinum |
borginni |
húsinu |
dat. pl. |
hestunum |
borgunum |
húsunum |
the... |
the... |
the... |
Besides the nominative (nefnifall), accusative (þolfall) and dative (þágufall), there is a genitive case (eignarfall). It's often called the "possessive case" in English. Some prepositions require the genitive. Find "further resources" at the bottom of this page to learn more.
Practice Activity
Use í in and með with before the dative when you translate these phrases:
- in the city
- with the friends
- from the dogs
- about the horse
- with the bone
- from the house
- about Icelandic (dative & accusative are the same!)
Adjectives
The grammar of Icelandic adjectives is similar to Icelandic nouns. Most importantly, the ending of an adjective must match ("agree with") the number, gender and case of the noun it describes.
Let's look at an example. When rauður red describes bíll car we talk about a rauður bíll red car, but with feminine skyrta it takes the feminine form: rauð skyrta red shirt. And with hús it takes the neuter form: rautt hús red house.
So, if you describe a neuter noun in the dative plural, your adjective must have a neuter plural dative ending. This is not as complicated as it first seems. See "further resources" at the bottom of the page.
The prefix ó- negates the meaning of an adjective: dýr expensive, but ódýr cheap (inexpensive).
Adverbs
Icelandic adverbs are more straightforward than nouns, adjectives and verbs. Regular adverbs simply add -a to the adjective stem. For example, fallegur beautiful (w/ masculine ending) becomes fallega beautifully.
"Irregular" adverbs are the most common and are learned one by one. They're often small words like heim home(ward) or nú now or bara only.
Adverbs follow a verb, like the adverb smá does in hann talar smá íslensku he speaks a bit of Icelandic.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions include the words og and, en but, eða or and ef if. These work much as in English.
Sentence types
The basic word order in Icelandic is subject-verb-object (SVO): ég talar íslensku. Subjects are often nominative nouns or pronouns. Objects are often accusative, dative or genitive nouns or pronouns.
Questions require inversion of the verb and subject (the order is verb-subject-object): talar þú íslensku? When there is a question word, it begins the question: hvað er þetta? what is this?
Negative sentences use ekki not after the verb: en ég tala ekki dönsku but I don't speak Danish; er þetta ekki bein? isn't this a bone?
To respond yes to a positive question, you say já (like já, ég tala íslensku yes, I speak Icelandic). To respond yes to a negative question, the answer is jú (like jú, þetta er bein yes, this is a bone). Nei means no (for instance, nei, þetta er ekki bein no, this isn't a bone).
Further resources
Since you've made it this far, you could probably use some recommendations for digging deeper into Icelandic grammar.
A few books come recommended. For traditional (explanations-and-readings) grammar lessons, try Einarsson's Icelandic: Grammar, Text and Glossary
Free websites are less developed and tougher for learners. Begin with Wikipedia's page on Icelandic Grammar, then move on to the Mímir Icelandic Grammar or the Icelandic Minigrammar to start filling in the details.