Icelandic/Basic Vocabulary
Appearance
Personal pronouns
[edit | edit source]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 | edit source]Icelandic | English |
Ég er maður. | I am a man. |
Þú ert strákur. | You are a boy. |
Article
[edit | edit source]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 | edit source]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 |