Ten Beginner Icelandic Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Sælir verið þið kæru nemendur,

This post will discuss and remedy ten common beginner Icelandic mistakes.

To illustrate the mistakes, incorrect and correct examples will be provided. The incorrect examples will be colored in red.

10. Using að after vilja

This first mistake is the lowest on the list, but given how common it is, it may as well be #1.

The complacation is that it is wrong in some cases but not others, which begs questions about the subjunctive that many new learners aren't quite ready to tackle. We'll avoid a more thorough discussion of the subjunctive here as well, as it's beyond the scope of the post.

The error happens when new speakers try to chain using the verb að vilja.

Hundurinn vill borða matinn hennar.

Often, new speakers learn the verb að vilja, but they don't learn (or they forget) that it is a bare infinitive verb. Unlike other verbs, when bare infinitive verbs chain, the following verb does not have the word að before it. As a result, new learned will make incorrect sentences like the following:

Example 1: Ég vil að gera þetta!
Example 2: Viltu að sjá?

These sentences can be fixed by simply removing the word að.

Example 1 Ég vil gera þetta!
Example 2: Viltu sjá?

9. Capitalizing days and languages

This one is straightforward. In English, days of the week and languages are always capitalized. In Icelandic, they are only capitalized if they are the first word of a sentence,just like with any other word.

Example 1: Ég er að læra Íslensku.
Example 2: Ég fór í bankann á Mánudaginn.

Example 1: Ég er að læra íslensku.
Example 2: Ég fór í bankann á mánudaginn.

8. Not declining proper names

While most Icelandic learners know that nouns decline, many new learners are surprised to learn that proper nouns decline, too. As a general rule, most foreign names do not decline, except for names that end in -a, which typically follow the female-weak pattern.

The big exception is for genetive, where most names will add an -s.

Note: If a first and a last name are mentioned, both will decline. The exception to this rule is that foreign names with both a first and family name mentioned do not decline the family name in formal settings. This is only a formal rule. In daily speech, people will decline both names.

Example 1: Hún talaði við Anna.
Example 2: Ég sá styttu af Leifur Eirikssónur.
Example 3: Biden var varaforseti Barack Obama.

Example 1: Hún talaði við Önnu.
Example 2: Ég sá styttu af Leifi Eirikssyni.
Example 3a: Biden var varaforseti Baracks Obama.
Example 3b: Biden var varaforseti Obamas.

7. Using adjectives instead of adverbs

This mistake is common for English natives who try to directly translate from English.

English is more flexible when it comes to using adjectives as adverbs. Consider the following sentence: "I did good on the test." This sentence is natural in English, but its direct Icelandic translation would be plainly incorrect.

Example: Mér gekk gott í prófinu.

The problem is that gott is an adjective, and adjectives have to modify nouns. But, we want to modify the action of how we did, or gekk in the Icelandic sentence. As a result, we need an adverb. The most synonymous of which would be vel, meaning well, which would also be the more correct word to use in English.

Example: Mér gekk vel í prófinu.

6. Misusing á, í, and til

Beginners often don't realize that prepositions do not translate between languages very well at all, so they use the "same" prepositions across langauges. As a result, when it comes to talking about locations in Icelandic, many beginners use prepositions incorrectly.

Example 1: Ég fer til bankans.
Example 2: Ég er í sjúkrahúsi.
Example 3: Ég er í Íslandi.

Just like how people typically say that they are "on a train" but "in a car," Icelandic switches between á and í when referring to being located at different places. What makes Icelandic a little more confusing is that this same preposition is used when going to that location as well.

To tell the difference between "going to" and "being at" a location, you need to examine the verb of the sentence. Also, for the to meaning, the location with be in the accusative, while it will be dative for the at meaning.

Example 1: Ég fer í bankann.
Example 1: Ég er í bankanum.

Example 2: Ég fer á sjúkrahús.
Example 2: Ég er á sjúkrahúsi.

It is hard to know whether the noun is going to need á or í, but you will pick up on the patterns and small rules of thumb as you learn. For example, places ending in -hús tend to need á.

There is one main exception to the previously stated rule. For cities, states, and countries, the to meaning is covered by til, which needs a genitive location.

Example 3: Ég er á Íslandi.
Example 3: Ég fer til Íslands.

5. Overusing það

This mistake is typically tied to a lack of knowledge about grammatical gender. In English (and many other languages), inanimate objects are referred to with the pronoun it, the Icelandic translation of which is það.

But Icelandic does not refer to inanimate things as það unless that object has been assigned to the neuter grammatical gender.

Grammatical gender is a fairly intensive topic, which you can read more about here.

4. Breaking V2

Icelandic maintains V2 word order, which means that the sentence's main verb needs to be the second element of the sentence.

Example: Ég elska þig.

This rule holds even when you put an adverb in the first position. This word order is unnatural in English, which is why many make mistakes, but perfectly correct in Icelandic.

Example 1: Í dag ég fór í bankann.

Example 1: Í dag fór ég í bankann.

There is one main exception. In English, many question types contain the meaningless word do or does to signify that the words following form a question, but Icelandic (and every other language in the world except for Gaelic languages) does not. Instead, Germanic languages invert, putting the verb in the first position instead of the noun.

Example 2: Þú vilt sjá. -> Viltu sjá?
Example 3: Hann getur ekki. - Getur hann ekki?

3. Not understanding quirky case verbs

Learners often face a small roadblock when they learn that not all Icelandic verbs have a nominative subject. A lot of verbs, many of which are very common, need subjects that are not nominative.

Many of the verbs revolve around thinking and other experiential verbs.

Example 1: Ég finnst kakan góð!
Example 2: Ég dreymdi að ég væri fiskur.

Example 1: Mér finnst kakan góð!
Example 2: Mig dreymdi að ég væri fiskur.

2. No supine/sagnbót

In a similar vein as #10, this common mistake is an exception when chaining verbs.

When you are using að geta or að hafa as chaining verbs, the verb that immediately follows it needs to be in the supine form. In Icelandic, this form is known as the sagnbót. Many beginners do not know about these forms or that they are required after these previously mentioned verbs and use a normal or bare infinitive instead.

Example 1: Ég get að gera það!
Example 2: Hefurðu að sjá það?

These sentences can be fixed by using the supine form instead of the infinitive. While it is a bit hard to describe how to form the supine, it is always identical to the third-person singular past participle form. With time, practice, and exposure, you will pick up the patterns and be able to create this form with no problem.

Example 1: Ég get gert það!
Example 2: Hefurðu séð það?

1. Not inflecting

The top mistake had to be related to inflection, the bane of every Icelandic learner's experience.

I mention not inflecting here instead of inflecting incorrectly because not inflecting is more of a true mistake. Most of the time, if someone does not inflect their words at all, it's because they don't know that they should; that is a true mistake. If someone inflects incorrectly, it's because they know that they should, but they simply do so incorrectly; this is more akin to a practice error.

Learners coming from a language with little to no inflection, like English, often do not realize that Icelandic changes nearly all of its words based on the grammatical context that that word is acting in. As a result, they just use the words they see in one context freely in the next and make sentences like the following:

Example: Ég kunna íslenska!

While explaining inflecting comprehensively here is a task far too large, the new learners should know that they should always ask what case, number, and definiteness a noun, pronoun, or adjective is acting in, and what person and plurality a verb is acting in. While it is hard and tedious at first, taking the time to stop, slow down, and build in these questions when you are first learning will pay dividends down the road. With enough practice, you will soon be marking perfect sentences.

Example 1: Ég kann íslensku!