Nouns

The declensions of each noun can be worked out using the information given alongside the relevant headword in the dictionary and the notes that accompany the tables given here in the Grammar.

Adjectives

As in German and Old English, adjectives have both a strong and weak declension: different forms of the adjective are used depending on whether the thing or person referred is definite or indefinite (the red house rauða húsið; a red house rautt hús).

Pronouns

For pronouns, feminine and neuter singular forms and all the nominative plurals are given in the body of the dictionary alongside the headform which is the masculine nominative singular. In the case of personal pronouns these inflected forms also feature as independent headwords. In case of uncertainty, desired forms of any pronoun can be looked up in the tables provided here.

Verbs

It has not been possible to mention all the variations here, but the basic patterns are presented in detail. No special attention is given to the reflexive or middle-voice forms, which are characterized by the -st ending (e.g. the reflexive infinitive of bjóða is bjóðast).

Further reading

Readers who desire more information are referred to Isländische Grammatik by Bruno Kress (VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 1982), A Course in Modern Icelandic by Jón Friðjónsson (Tímaritið Skák, Reykjavík 1978), Icelandic by Stefán Einarsson (The John Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1949) and Íslensk beygingafræði – Isländische Formenlehre – Icelandic Inflections by Colin D. Thomson (Helmut Buske Verlag, Hamburg 1987).

Vowel changes

The following are the most common vowel changes encountered in the inflections of Icelandic nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns and verbs, and a reasonable familiarity with them is essential:

Masculine

Feminine

Neuter

Masculine

Feminine

Neuter

Strong declension

Most adjectives are declined like ríkur and langur. Adjective stems lose the final -d or -ð of a consonant cluster in the n sg, nom + acc (e.g. blindur $$am blint, harður $$am hart).

If the stem ends with a vowel + ð, the -ð is assimilated with the -t (e.g. glaður $$am glatt), while a vowel + dd is assimilated as -tt (e.g. saddur $$am satt).

Adjectives containing the tense vowels -á/-jó/-ú are declined as hár, while those ending in -ur are declined like fagur (e.g. bitur, dapur, digur, lipur, magur, snotur, vitur).

Adjectives ending in -ll and -nn (apart from gamall, einsamall, lítill, mikill, and adjectives (esp.past participles) ending in -inn) are declined like heill and beinn.

einsamall is declined like gamall. mikill is declined like lítill, but without changes in the vowel.

All adjectives with nom m sg ending in -ýr and -sær are declined like nýr, as is miður (f mið, n mitt) except that the nom m pl has the form miðjir.

Adjectives ending in -inn and the past participles of the strong verbs are declined like boginn, while the past participles of weak verbs with the ending -inn are declined like barinn (those that have -ð- in the preterite), like talinn (those that have -d- in the preterite), and like þakinn (those that have -t- in the preterite).

Weak declension

The weak form of the nom m sg is obtained by dropping the -r of the strong form of the nom m pl, e.g. langir > langi.

Comparatives are always inflected as weak adjectives (e.g. langur: all cases in m sg and f sg lengri, n sg lengra, pl (m, f, n) in all cases lengri.

Comparison

comp-ari, superl-astur.

The vast majority of adjectives form their comparatives and superlatives in this way.

comp-ri, superl-astur.

The comparative -r is assimilated and disappears in adjectives whose nom m sg ends in -ll or -nn such as heill. Adjectives ending in -legur/-ugur, -ull, and -á-, -é-, -í-, -ú-, -ý-, -æ-, -ei-, followed by -ll/-nn form their comparatives and superlatives as above.

comp-ri, superl-stur

Only a handful of adjectives form their comparatives and superlatives in this way.

A few comparatives and superlatives are derived from a separate stem:

Declension of cardinal numbers

The unexpected plural of einn (einir, einar, ein) can be glossed as a couple. The numbers following have only the plural form. Numbers higher than four are indeclinable. The plural of hundrað is hundruð while that of þúsund is the same as the singular.

Declension of ordinal numbers

fyrsti and the ordinal numbers from þriðji on are declined as weak adjectives. annar has a special declension:

Personal pronouns

Possessive pronouns

þinn and sinn are declined as minn. The only other possessive pronouns are the indeclinable genitives of the personal pronouns, hans, hennar, þess; okkar, ykkar, (yðar), þeirra. These are used when the subject of the sentence and the antecedent of the possessive are not the same.

Demonstrative pronouns

hinn as a definite article is declined as above, but has hið in the nom n sg and nom.

Interrogative pronouns

hvað is used when the antecedent is a noun and means what. hvert is used in place of an adjective and is glossed as which. While hver means who or which of many, hvor (hvor, hvort) means who or which of the two. The latter is declined like the possessive pronoun vor.

Indefinite pronouns

nokkuð is used in place of a noun and means something while the adjectival variant nokkurt means some or any. einhver is declined like the interrogative pronoun hver. neinn is declined like the number einn.

Weak verbs

(preterite formed with -aði, -ði, -di, -ti)

Class 1: 1st pers pres sg indic ending in -a; infinitive ending in -a, -ja, -va; any type of stem vowel; preterite formed with -aði, pp with -að.

Class 2: 1st pers pres sg indic ending in -i (no ending when infinitive ends in -á: ná > næ). Infinitive endings in -a (or -ja after g and k) or -á. Preterite formed in the sg with -ði, -di, -ti, pp with -t or -að.

Also belonging to this class are verbs with vowel change in the infinitive and pres indic: segja (sagði, sagt) ég segi, við segjum; and þegja (þagði, þagað) ég þegi, við þegjum. Some verbs of this type have vowel change only in the pres sg indic and not in the infinitive: hafa (hafði, haft) ég hef, and þvo (þvoði, þvegið) ég þvæ, við þvoum. A few verbs with final consonants in the stem take -t to form the pp: haft, horft, keypt (kaupa), sagt.

Class 3: There is no ending in 1st pers pres sg indic and the infinitive ends in -ja; vowel change in the infinitive and in the entire present tense.

Strong verbs

The classes of strong verbs are differentiated by changes in the vowel. Verb endings are the same as in Class 3 of weak verbs with the exception of the 2nd and 3rd pers sg pres indic, where the endings depend on the final letter in the stem; pp ends in -ið.

All strong verbs whose stems end in consonants (other than -n, -r, -s, -x) have the same endings as bíta. Verbs with stems ending in -r, -s, -n and -x or that end in a vowel do not follow this rule and are conjugated as follows:

Seven classes of vowel change

In the following table the 1st pers pres indic is given only where the stem vowel differs from that in the infinitive (i.e. where change occurs).

The vowel changes are given alongside the relevant headword in the dictionary.

Verbs with irregular present tense

These verbs are declined irregularly only in the present tense. Pret indic and subjunctive forms have the same endings as weak verbs, and so only the 1st pers sg indic (or subjunctive where there is no indicative) of the preterite is given. Only vera is irregular in the preterite as well as in the subjunctive of the present tense.