Icelandic
The Persons
Ég (I)
Þú (You)
Hann/Hún/Það (He/She/It)
Við (We)
Þið (You)
Þeir/Þær/Þau (They)
The Articles
Icelandic does not have an indefinite article (a/an in English), and the definite article (the) is usually joined onto the end of word in question. The independent article, i.e., not attached to the noun as a suffix, is mostly used in poetry and irregularly elsewhere. The table below shows the different suffix forms for the three genders:
No article
Masculine
-ur (singular)
-i (singular)
-ll (singular)
-nn (singular)
-ar (plural)
Feminine
-a (singular)
-ir (plural)
-ur (plural)
Defninite article
Masculine
-ur
inn (singular)
-i
nn (singular)
-ll
inn (singular)
-nn
inn (singular)
-ar
nir (plural)
Feminine
-in
-a
n (singular)
-ir
nar (plural)
-ur
nar (plural)
Neuter
-ið (singular)
-in (singular)
The independent or free-standing definite article exists in Icelandic in the form
hinn.
The example below shows three nouns, one for each respective gender, declined in the nominative:
masculine: hval
ur—“(a) whale” becomes hvalur
inn—“the whale”
feminine: klukk
a—“(a) clock” becomes klukk
an—“the clock”
neuter: heimilisfang—“(an) address” becomes heimilisfang
ið—“the address”
Rules about big and small letters are divided into three parts. Capital letters:
after punctuation marks,
in nouns,
in other groups.
It must be noted that due to (mostly) English influences, both foreigners and Icelanders tend to write capital letters where not appropriate and vice versa. The Icelandic rules also tend to be confusing. However, these few (about five hundred) and simple rules and years of practice, should make it all worth while.
Always start with a capital letter at the beginning of each sentence.
Ex.: Ég er svangur. Fáum okkur að borða. – I'm hungry. Let's have something to eat.
Ex.: Ertu franskur? – Are you French?
Ex.: Enska er skemmtileg, en ekki eins skemmtileg og íslenska. – English is fun, but not as fun as Icelandic.
Always write a capital letter after a period (.) or the equivalent of a period (?!) unless it is followed by a dependent clause.
Ex.: Aðal þema Moby Dicks var: Vertu þú sjálfur. – The main theme of Moby **** was: Be yourself.
Ex.: Jæja! Enn og aftur tókst þér að klúðra þessu. – Well! Once again you managed to screw it up.
Ex.: Er ég ánægður? Ó jæja. – Am I happy? Oh well.
Ex.: Hann missti allt: manga bækurnar sínar, myndirnar sínar og DS tölvuna sína. – He lost everything: his manga books, his pictures and his DS game computer.
The last example was a dependent clause.
If a direct quote is in a sentence, a lower case letter follows, even if it ends with a question mark (?) or an exclamation mark (!).
Ex.: "Ertu lítill?" spurði hann. – "Are you small" he asked.
Ex.: "Ég hata þig!" öskraði hún. – "I hate you!" she yelled.
- Human names (Geir Hagalín), human pet names (Kalli), god and godesses (Hades, Kristur) and animal names (Lassý)
- (Örnefni), f.x. the names of the continents (Evrópa =Europe), names of countries (Japan), names of locations (New York), names of regions in countries (Norðurland), street names (Kringlumýrarbraut), also common nouns which are used as proper nouns e.g. (Tjörnin, which means "the pond" and would be written with a t in that meaning), and shortened names of locations (Fjörðurinn = Hafnarfjörður)
- Name of constitutions (Spítali Íslands), clubs (The Icelandic book club), corporations (Eimskip, Síminn) and political parties (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn, Samfylkingin)
- Name of books (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), newspapers (Morgunblaðið, Fréttablaðið) and magazines (Hugur og heilsa)
- Names of musical pieces (Canon in A), poems (Sónettur Shakespears)and essays (Áhrif gróðurhúsaáhrifa)
- Nations (Skoti = a Scot), residents in specific areas (Texasbúi = a Texan) or continents (Asíu-maður = an Asian)
- Stars (Pólstjarnan) and constellations (Óríon)
- Note that the names of languages are not written with a capital letter.
- (Ísland = Iceland, Íslendingur = an Icelandic person, íslenska = Icelandic.)
Icelandic verbs are strong or weak and have:
- six tenses (present, preterite, perfect, pluperfect, future, future perfect)
- three voices (active, middle, passive)
- six moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative, present participle, past participle, infinitive).
- The basic form of the Icelandic verb is the infinitive. This is the form given in dictionaries. It almost always ends in an -a, and is commonly preceded by the small word að (to). Að hafa (to have), að gefa (to give).
Let's now conjugate a present verb in both indicative and subjunctive:
Indicative:
Ég tek - I take
þú tekur - you take
hann tekur - he takes
við tökum - we take
þið takið - you take
þeir taka - they take
And now the past tense, using a different verb:
Indicative:
Ég sagði - I said
þú sagðir - you said
hann sagði - he said
við sögðum - we said
þið sögðuð - you said
þeir sögðu - they said
- The subjunctive commonly has an -i- in its endings. It is used in dependent clauses.
- First and second person plurals always have the same endings. (-um and -ð)
- Strong verbs form the past by changing their root vowels. Compare ég tek (I take) with ég tók (I took).
- Weak verbs add a special suffix to their stem, either a -t- or a -ð- (as in sag-ð-i above)
- The future is either identical to the present or formed with the auxiliary verb munu. Ég mun fara (I will go), þú munt koma (you will come).
- The future perfect is made with two auxiliary verbs. Ég mun hafa gert (I will have done). This is not common.
- The past participle declines like a noun or adjectve. The masculine, feminine and neuter forms of the verbs gefa (give) and taka (take) are as follows:
- Gefinn - gefin - gefið and tekinn - tekin - tekið.
- The neuter form (gefið - tekið) along with the verb to have (hafa) is used to form the perfect and pluperfect tenses. Ex. Hann hefur tekið (he has taken), hún hafði farið (she had gone).
- The present participle can easily be identified by its ending -andi. Gefandi (giving), takandi (taking). It does not decline.
- The imperative has a singular and a plural form. The singular is most commonly formed by appending the pronoun þú (you) to the verb stem. The pronoun assimilates to make forms like farðu (go!) komdu (come!).
- The plural imperative is identical to the present, e.g. takið (take!) komið (come!).
- The passive is formed using the past participle and the verb 'to be' as an auxiliary.
- Það var tekið (it was taken) bréfið er skrifað (the letter is written).
- The middle voice can be recognized by its suffix -st. It is commonly used when the subject and the object are the same one. Við berjumst (we fight, i.e. we beat and are beaten). Ég klæðist (I put on clothes, i.e. I dress myself).
Words
Nouns:
Ein kona - Woman
Eitt barn - Child
Eitt fjall - Mountain
Einn hundur - Dog
Ein verðlaun - Trophy/Award
Eitt sjónvarp - Television
Verbs:
Leika - Play (games where you pretend; children's games)
Spila - Play (sports you play, card/board games you play)
Skrifa - Write
Syngja - Sing
Lykta - Smell
Dansa - Dance
Gera - Make
Heyra - Hear
Reyna - Try
Skilja - Understand
Tala - Talk
Hlægja - Laugh
Adjectives:
Gott - Good
Vont - Bad
Sæt/fín - Pretty (both mean pretty in the English sense)
Falleg - Beautiful
Ljót - Ugly
Stór - Big
Lítil - Small
Hátt - Loud
Hljótt - Quiet
Colors:
Rauður - Red
Blár - Blue
Gulur - Yellow
Grænn - Green
Svartur - Black
Hvítur - White
Brúnn - Brown
Fjólublár - Purple
Bleikur - Pink
Appelsínugulur - Orange
Prepositions:
Um - About
Að - At, With
Gegnum, Gegn - Through
Umfram - An addition
Kringum, Umhverfis - Around
Af - Off
Frá - From
Hjá - With
Úr - Out of
Andspænis, Móti - Opposite
Ásamt - Along
Gagnvart - Towards
Handa - For
Meðfram - Along
Undan - From under
Til - To
Án - Without
Milli - Between
Months:
Janúar
Febrúar
Mars
Apríl
Maí
Júní
Júlí
Ágúst
September
Október
Nóvember
Desember
Days:
Mánudagur
Þriðjudagur
Miðvikudagur
Fimmtudagur
Föstudagur
Laugardagur
Sunnudagur
Numbers:
1 Einn
2 Tveir
3 Þrír
4 Fjórir
5 Fimm
6 Sex
7 Sjö
8 Átta
9 Níu
10 Tíu
11 Ellefu
12 Tólf
13 Þrettán
14 Fjórtán
15 Fimmtán
16 Sextán
17 Sautján
18 Átján
19 Nítján
20 Tuttugu
In Iceland we have a list of pre-approved names that we can names our kids with, and if the name you want isn't on that list it's either too bad for you or you can appeal to Mannanafnanefnd (Icelandic Naming Committee) and they will rule in the case. A new name is considered for its compatibility with Icelandic tradition and for the likelihood that it might cause the bearer embarrassment. Names must be compatible with Icelandic grammar (in which all nouns, including proper names, have grammatical gender and change their forms in an orderly fashion according to the language's case system). Names must also contain only letters occurring in the Icelandic alphabet, and with only occasional exceptions, a name's grammatical gender must match the sex of the person bearing the name.
Mannanafnaskrá | Íslensk nöfn | Auðkenning | Ísland.is
Icelandic alphabet
A, Á, B, D, Ð, E, É, F, G, H, I, Í, J, K, L, M, N, O, Ó, P, R, S, T, U, Ú, V, X, Y, Ý, Þ, Æ, Ö.
This is it, at least for now! Hope you can understand a little bit
