Icelandic/Basic Vocabulary

Personal pronouns edit

Personal pronouns in Icelandic decline, just as they do in English:

Icelandic English
(að) vera
(ég) er
(þú) ert
(hann/hún/það) er
(við) erum
(þið) eruð
(þeir/þær/þau) eru
(to) be
(I) am
(you) are
(he/she/it) is
(we) are
(you) are
(they) are

Examples edit

Icelandic English
Ég er maður. I am a man.
Þú ert strákur. You are a boy.


Article edit

Since Icelandic doesn't have an indefinite article, a man will simply be maður in Icelandic. However it does have an attached definite article, so the man will become maðurinn in Icelandic.


English w.o. article Icelandic w.o. article English w. article Icelandic w. article
feminine a woman kona the woman. kona-n
masculine a man maður the man maður-inn
neuter a child barn the child barn-ið


the child is small = barnið er lítið
this is a small child = þetta er lítið barn
the man is young = maðurinn er ungur
the woman is young = konan er ung

Notice that in the above sample when saying that the man is young one uses ungur, 
but when referring to a woman one uses ung. 
This is because adjectives change according to the gender of the word it describes. E.g.:

Maðurinn (masculine) er ung-ur. 
Konan (feminine) er ung-.
Barnið (neutral) er ung-t.

Adjectives edit

English Masculine Feminine Neuter
beautiful falleg-ur falleg- falleg-t
good góð-ur góð gott
young ung-ur ung- ung-t
old gamal-l gömul gamal-t
pretty sæt-ur sæt- sæt-t