Icelandic/Lesson 2

Kafli 2: Talarðu ensku?

Lesson 2: Do you speak English?

In this lesson you will learn: to read self introductions → how to say what your name is → what languages you can speak → how to say where you come from → about the present continuous tense → the verbs að búa, að koma, að tala, and að heita → about Icelandic surnames →

Kynning (Self Introduction)

Read the following self introductions from two Icelanders who are telling about themselves, what languages they speak, where their family comes from and what their names are. There will of course be some new words in these introductions that you will not be familiar with. Try to use your prior English knowledge to figure out some of the meanings. Write down words that you definitely cannot figure out or understand, and read the vocabulary box below. Once you have read over the vocabulary, try to read again the introductions for a better understanding and comprehension.

heiti, heitir - my name is, his/her name is (from að heita) frá - from Íslandi - Iceland (dative form of Ísland) tala, talar - I speak, he/she speaks (from að tala) íslensku - Icelandic (accusative form of íslenska) dönsku - Danish (accusative form of danska) ensku - English (accusative form of enska) litla - a little (accusative feminine form of lítill) þýsku - German (accusative form of þýska) Mamma mín - my mum líka - also, too Pabbi minn - my dad kemur - comes (from að koma) Írlandi - Ireland (dative form of Írland) írsku - Irish Gaelic (accusative form of írska) að læra - learning, to learn menntaskóla - Icelandic High School (accusative form of menntaskóli) spænsku - Spanish (accusative form of spænska) Jæja, gaman að hitta ykkur - Well, nice to meet you all sem móðurmál - as a mother tongue norsku - Norwegian (accusative form of norska) frönsku - French (accusative form of franska) ítölsku - Italian (accusative form of ítalska) maður minn - my husband (literally: my man, eiginmaður means husband also) Noregi - Norway (dative form of Noregur) Hann talar ekki ensku - He doesn't speak English búum - we live (from að búa, to live) saman - together í Reykjavík - in Reykjavík (the capital of Iceland)

Málfræði

Sagnorð

We see some conjugations of verbs in present simple that are uses in basic introductions.

að tala	to speak
ég tala	i speak
Þú talar	you speak
hann/hún talar	he/she speaks
við tölum	we speak
þið talið	you speak
Þeir/Þær/Þau tala	they speak
að búa	to live
ég bý	i live
þú býrð	you live
hann/hún býr	he/she lives
við búum	we live
þið búið	you live
þeir/þær/Þau búa	they live
að koma	to come
ég kem	i come
þú kemur	you come
hann/hún kemur	he/she comes
við komum	we come
þið komið	you come
þeir/þær/Þau koma	they come
að heita	to call
ég heiti	i call
þú heitir	you call
hann/hún heitir	he/she calls
við heitum	we call
þið heitið	you call
þeir/þær/Þau heita	they call

The conjugation of the progresive presente is with the auxiliar to be followed of the verb.

Dæmi:

• Hún er að koma : she is coming
• Við erum að búa : we are living.