Verbs

Meira um sagnorð – More about verbs

Birt þann af Alasdair Laing
Verbs
Sagnorð

As you may have noticed, verbs in Icelandic don’t always conjugate in the same way. The most common verb endings are -a, -ar, -ar, -um, -ið, -a. These are the endings for what is often referred to as Group 1 regular verbs [if you study with Complete Icelandic] or Group 1 verbs [if you study with Icelandic Online]. The second most common verb endings are -i, -ir, -ir, -um, ið, -a. These are the endings for what is often referred to as Group 2 regular verbs [Complete Icelandic] or Group 2 verbs [Icelandic Online]. These are what are also referred to as „regular verbs„.

In Icelandic, as we have mentioned before, there are two main types of verb – strong and weak:

– „Strong“ verbs mark their past tense by means of changes to the stem vowel. For example, the verb „að vera“ is strong, as is „að bua„. In English, verbs such as „to sing“ are strong, where the past tense becomes „sang/sung“. HERE are further examples of strong verbs. The plural present tense endings of almost all strong verbs are regular: -um, ið, -a.

– „Weak“ verbs mark their past tense by means of adding a dental suffix [most usually a /t/ or /d/ sound]. For example, the verb „að tala“ is weak, as is „að ætla„. In English, verbs such as „to walk“ are weak, where the past tense becomes „walked“. HERE are further examples of weak verbs.

NB: There are also „irregular verbs„. These differ from strong verbs because all strong verbs feature a vowel change and have no ending in the past tense 1st person singular, whereas irregular verbs always have an ending in the past tense 1st person singular [and only some feature a vowel change]. For example, „að hafa“ is classed as an irregular verb [whilst also being classed as a weak verb].

For quick reference, here is the chart that Icelandic Online utilises. They spilt the verbs into 5 groups:

Sagnorð
Sagnorð

If you are still with us after all that, congratulations! Icelandic verbs for the most part are pretty regular but, as with English, the most common ones are the most irregular – and unfortunately you just need to learn them. To help you out, I highly recommend Beygingarlýsing íslensks nútímamáls and Verbix Icelandic Conjugation.

Að tala – to speak

Birt þann af Alasdair Laing
Ég tala íslensku Ég tala íslensku

Once you’ve introduced yourself, and used the Icelandic you already have, your new acquaintance may want to know if they can continue speaking to you in Icelandic – or switch to another language. In this lesson, we will look at ways in which you can discuss your linguistic talents.

First off, let’s take a look at the verb „að tala“ – to speak:

Ég tala                                         I speak
Þú talar                                       You speak
Hann/Hún/Það talar               He/She/It speaks
Við tölum                                   We speak
Þið talið                                      You (pl) speak
Þeir/Þær/Þau tala                    They speak

You will notice that the verb conjugates depending on the pronoun to which it refers. The verb „að tala“ is a „Group 1 regular verb“. It takes –ar in the 3rd person singular (hann/hún/það).

Here are some simple, but really useful, phrases you can use when talking about linguistic level:

Fyrirgefðu, ég tala ekki íslensku

Sorry, I don’t speak Icelandic

Ég tala smá íslensku

I speak a bit of Icelandic

Ég tala svolitla íslensku

I speak a little Icelandic

Hann talar reiprennandi íslensku og ensku

He speaks fluent Icelandic and English

Hún talar mörg tungumál – íslenska, enska og ítalska

She speaks many languages – Icelandic, English and Italian

If somebody says this one to you, you should be very proud indeed:

það er aldeilis. Þið talið mjög góða íslensku!

That’s impressive. You speak very good Icelandic!

You may have noticed the names of the languages changed form in the examples above. This is called declension. In this case, the word íslenska becomes íslensku. This is because the verb að tala governs that the object be in the accusative case.

To find out more about the changes which occur to the names of languages in the accusative case, I highly recommend Complete Icelandic, pages 14-16 + 19-20.

Að heita – to be called

Birt þann af Alasdair Laing
Ég heiti...
Ég heiti…

In a previous post we saw how to ask someone’s name: „Hvað heitir þú?“ or „Hvað heitirðu?“

What if you wanted to say „You are called“ or „She is called“? Let’s take a look:

Ég heiti                                         I am called
Þú heitir                                      You are called
Hann/Hún/Það heitir               He/She/It is called
Við heitum                                  We are called
Þið heitið                                    You (pl) are called
Þeir/Þær/Þau heita                  They are called

You will notice that the verb conjugates depending on the pronoun to which it refers. The verb „að heita“ is a strong verb. It takes –ir in the 3rd person singular (hann/hún/það).

– Note how the conjugation of the singular (ég, þú, hann/hún/það) varies across verbs, but that of the plural (við, þið, þeir/þær/þau) stays the same. This is the case for almost all Icelandic verbs.

An example conversation based on this verb could be as follows:

A: Halló! Hvað heitir þú?

D: Halló. Ég heiti Davið. En þú?

A: Ég heiti Auður. Heitirðu Davið Daviðsson?

D: Nei. Ég heiti ekki Davið Daviðsson. Ég heiti Davið Þorsson. Heitir þú Auður Helgasdóttir?

A: Já. Auður Helgasdóttir heiti ég!

You’ll notice in the above dialogue that in some of the sentences the word order was a little different to what you might expect. Don’t panic! It still means the same – changing the word order, like in English, simply places more emphasis on what you say:

„Heitirðu Davið Daviðsson?“ – Are you called David Davidson?

„Ég heiti Auður Helgsdóttir“ – I am called Audrey Helgasdóttir

„Auður Helgasdóttir heiti ég“ – Auður Helgasdóttir is my name

To Be or not To Be

Birt þann af Alasdair Laing

While it is true that the Icelandic language has a lot of grammatical structures, and a lot of them complicated, they don’t have to be. The basics and actually pretty simple and very easy to learn. Here we’re going to take a brief look at the verb „to be“ (að vera). It is a „strong verb“:

Ég er             I am                     Það er                           It is
Þú ert          You are                Við erum                     We are
Hann er       He is                    Þið eruð                       You (pl) are
Hún er         She is                   Þeir/Þær/Þau eru      They are

Not too difficult, is it? Since Icelandic is a Germanic language, its word order is similar to that of English: Subject – Verb – Object

Að vera - to be
Að vera – to be

– The one thing to note are the different versions of „they are“. Icelandic makes a distinction in gender, where English does not. „Þeir“ is used for referring to men, „Þær“ when referring to women and „Þau“ when referring to both sexes.

– Just like in German, Iceland has a 3rd word for „you“ („þér“). This is the polite singular and plural form. It isn’t common in modern day language, but may be seen in books and online texts.