Icelandic/Grammar/Nouns

Nafnorð

Nouns

Nouns are words that describe a person, place, thing, or idea.

For example:

• Sarah ran away.
• Reykjavík is beautiful.
• Cars pollute, but are essential.
• When you are sad, think of good memories.

In Icelandic, these take on endings and inflections like verbs and personal pronouns do in English.

Gender

In Icelandic, like most other Indo-European languages (but not English), nouns have a gender. A noun can be either masculine, feminine, or neuter. A noun's gender rarely has anything to do with biological gender, except in words for male or female people, animals, etc.; nouns used for non-living things like furniture have gender too. The gender of nouns can usually be determined by the ending it has (or does not have). This is not a guaranteed rule, but it does usually work. Memorization, however, is the only way to really know the gender of a noun.

All nouns are classified as "strong" or "weak". This does not affect their semantic function; it only affects their declension.

Typical noun endings

Gender/Strength	Strong masculine	Weak masculine	Strong feminine	Weak feminine	Strong neuter	Weak neuter
Endings	-ur, -ll, or -nn	-i	-ing, -un, or has no ending	-a, -i	Has no ending, or final vowel is accented	-a
Examples	hestur, stöll, steinn	lampi, nemandi	spurning, byrjun, rós	taska, fræði	hótel, bakarí	auga
Meanings	horse, stool, stone	lamp, student	question, beginning, rose	bag, studies	hotel, bakery	eye

Definite vs. indefinite article

There is no indefinite article in Icelandic. What would be "a" or "an" in English is "built into" Icelandic nouns, so to speak. Hestur translates to a horse, for example. The definite article (equivalent to English the) can be formed in two ways in Icelandic, either by adding an ending to a noun or using a definite article before it.

The definite article, in addition to its English usage, is also used in Icelandic to refer to concepts.

• skóli (without article): "a school"
• skólinn (with article):
  • "the school" (a specific school)
  • "school" (the concept of school)

Definite article endings

Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
-(i)nn	-(i)n	-(i)ð

These are added to the end of a noun of the corresponding gender. With the previous example of hestur, saying "the horse" would be hesturinn. If the noun ends in a vowel that is not accented, the i is dropped from the ending before being added. As an example, herbergi (a room) becomes herbergið with the definite ending. Bakarí would become bakaríið, because the final vowel is accented.

If using a definite article before the adjective, the definite article is formed by adding the appropriate ending to the letter h (i.e. hinn, hin, and hið). This usage is largely poetic, and is rare in normal conversation. However, the word hinn is also used as a demonstrative pronoun, equivalent to English "that" or "the other" (of two objects).

Adjective placement

With a definite article

Just the same as in English, adjectives come after the definite article and before the noun.

Hið góða bakarí er í Reykjavík.
The good bakery is in Reykjavík.

With a definite ending

If an ending has been used to form the definite then the adjectives come after the noun and the noun usually begins the sentence.

Góði dagurinn er búinn.
The good day is over.

Although this section is about nouns, notice the difference in spelling of góða and góði. Both mean the same thing, but adjectives must also be in the correct form according to the gender of the noun.

Note

Some Icelandic words can acquire the opposite meaning with the prefix: -ó

• With nouns:
  • Vinur ~ Óvinur
  • Friend ~ Enemy.
  • Veður ~ Óveður
  • Weather ~ Bad weather.
• With adjectives:
  • Skemtilegur ~ Óskemtilegur
  • Funny ~ Boring.
  • Dýr ~ Ódýr
  • Expensive ~ Cheap.