Last Update: Saturday, August 4, 2007

Language Tutorials • English Linguistics • Assistants in France • About Me • Blog • Site Map

---

Donate €

Enter your search terms Submit search form

Web	www.ielanguages.com

Donate $

---

Icelandic Tutorial written by Daniel Roche

1. Pronunciation

Icelandic has many English sounds due the languages both coming from the same language tree. Unless mentioned, assume English pronunciation.

Á á - said as “ow” as in cow

Ð ð - said as “th” in the

E e - said as the short “ai” sound in air

É é - said as yeah, but shorter

F f - at the start of words it is said as the English f. Between vowels as English. Before l or n as a b. Fnd is said as English m and fnt is said as hm

G g - At the beginning of words it is said as a hard English g. In between vowels and at the end of a word a very soft throaty g resembling a toned down German “ch” at the back of the throat.

It is not pronounced between accented vowels. It is said as an Icelandic j between a vowel and j. After a vowel and before a t or s it is a hard German “ch”

I i - said as “I” in win

Í í - said as “ee” in we

J j - said as a “y” at the beginning of words. Elsewhere it is aspirated before the “y” sound

O o - said as “o” in hot

Ó ó - said as “oh”

R r - is always rolled

S s - always an “s”, never said as a z

U u - said as the French “eux” but shorter

Ú ú - said as the “ew” sound in yew

X x - said as a hard German “ch”

Y y - see I

Ý ý - see í

Þ þ - said as the “th” sound in thing

Æ æ - said as “eye”

Ö ö - said as “ur” as in murder

Hv - as “kf” in thankful

Ll - as “tl”

Nn - as tn after accented vowel or diphthong. This also happens between rl, rn, sl and sn

Pp, tt, kk are all aspirated

Au - is said as “öj”

Ei and ey - said as the “a” sound in case

2. Alphabet and the names of the letters

A a a	N n enn
Á á á	O o o
B b bé	Ó ó ó
D d dé	P p pé
Ð ð eð	R r er
E e e	S s ess
É é é	T t té
F f eff	U u u
G g ge	Ú ú ú
H h há	V v vaff
I i i	X x ex
Í í í	Y y ufsilon y
J j joð	Ý ý ufsilon ý
K k ká	Þ þ þorn
L l ell	Æ æ æ
M m emm	Ö ö ö

3. Nouns and Cases

Cases are simply the ending of a noun. In Icelandic most nouns are declined. There are 3 genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and 4 cases (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive). Icelandic is not largely a grammatical language, but instead a lexical language. This means that is it is verbs and prepositions which govern cases, rather than sentence position. If there is both a verb and preposition in the sentence it will be the preposition rather than the verb which decides the case.

4. Nominative Case

This is the case in which all nouns appear in the dictionary. If the verb in the sentence does not govern a case, and there is no preposition then the noun will be in the nominative case. The nominative singular endings are as follows:

Masculine: ur, l, n, i

Feminine: a, or no ending

Neuter: no endings, although nouns ending with accented accents are usually neuter.

5. Accusative Case

The singular accusative case endings are as follows:

Masculine: remove the nominative ending. If the noun ends in i then it changes to a.

Feminine: if the noun had no ending in the nominative, it will have no ending in the accusative. If the noun ended in a it will change to ur.

Neuter: no ending.

6. Dative Case

The dative singular endings are:

Masculine: very irregular group. Some acquire i, others do not. If the noun ended in i in the nominative, it will end in a in the dative.

Feminine: the same rules apply as the feminine accusative.

Neuter: add i.

7. Genitive Case

Masculine: add s. If the noun ended in i in the nominative, it will end in an a in the genitive.

Feminine: nouns which ended in a become ar. Nouns which had no ending remain ur.

Neuter: add s.

8. Plurals

The table below shows the case endings in the plural:

	Masculine -ur, l, n -i		Feminine No ending -a	Neuter
Nominative	ir	ir	ur	Vowel shift See section 8
Accusative	a	ir	ur
Dative	U(m)*
Genitive	a

* The m is not added if definite article is being added.

9. The articles

There is no indefinate article, meaning that the word barn (child) means both child and a child.

The definite article is suffixed to the noun and its declension. The table below shows the definite article and its various declensions:

Singular
	Masculine -ur, l,n -i		Feminine No ending -a		Neuter
Nominative	inn	nn	in	n	ið
Accusative	inn	nn	ina	na	ið
Dative	num	num	inni	nni	nu
Genitive	ins	ns	innar	nnar	ins
Plural
Nominative	nir	nar	nar		in
Accusative	na	nar	nar		in
Dative	num
Genitive	nna

10. A complete declension table

Here is an example of all noun classes without the definite article.

Singular
	Masculine -ur, l, n -i		Feminine No ending -a		Neuter
Nominative	bíll	nemandi	rós	kirkja	barn
Accusative	bíl	nemanda	rós	kirkju	barn
Dative	bíl	nemanda	rós	kirkju	barni
Genitive	bíls	nemanda	rósar	kirkju	barns
Plural
Nominative	bílar	nemendur	rósir	kirkjur	börn
Accusative	bíla	nemendur	rósir	kirkjur	börn
Dative	bílum	nemendum	rósum	kirkjum	börnum
Genitive	bíla	nemanda	rósa	kirkja	barna

And with the definite article

Singular
	Masculine -ur, l, n -i		Feminine No ending -a		Neuter
Nominative	bíllinn	nemandinn	rósina	Kirkjan	barnið
Accusative	bílinn	nemandann	rósinni	kirkjuni	barnið
Dative	bílnum	nemandanum	rósinna	kirkjunna	barninu
Genitive	bílsins	nemandans	rósarinnar	kirkjunnir	barnsins
Plural
Nominative	bílarnir	nemendurnir	rósirnar	kirkjurnar	börnin
Accusative	bílana	nemendurna	rósirnar	kirkjurnar	börnin
Dative	bílunum	nemendunum	rósunum	kirkjunum	börnunum
Genitive	bílanna	nemandanna	rósanna	kirkjanna	barnanna

Bíll – car

Nemandi – pupil

Rós – rose

Kirkja – church

Barn – child

11. Prepositions

The following prepositions govern the accusative case:

Um – about

Gegnum – through

Kringum – around

Við – at, against

The following prepositions govern the dative case:

Að – towards

Frá – from

Af – off

Úr – out of

Nálægt – near

The following prepostitions govern the genitive case:

Til – to

Án – without

Milli – between

Vegna – because of

Prepositions governing more than one case:

Í and dative – in

Í and accusative – into

Á and dative – on

Á and accusative – onto

Undir and dative – under

Under and accusative – going under

Með and dative – means “with” but in an instrumental sense.

Með and accuasative – means “with" as in bringing

12. Demonstratives

To form “the other” add an h in front of definite article and put it before the noun. There is only one irregularity – neuter singular becomes hitt not hið.

This

Singular
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	þessi	þessi	þetta
Accusative	þennan	þessa