Singular Personal Pronouns

Now that we have basic familiarity with weak nouns, weak verbs, grammatical gender, and how the cases are used, its time to incorporate pronouns into the mix! It is extremely common to use pronouns during conversations after a noun has been mentioned previously and it is clear based on context what is being refered to.

Using pronouns often leads to more natural and less clunky sentences. Consider which of the two examples below sounds more natural:

Example 1: This is Jón. Jón loves fishing. Fishing is Jon's favorite activity.
Example 2: This is Jón. He loves fishing. It is his favorite activity.

First and Second-Person Pronouns

The first and second-person pronouns replace people in the first and second-person.

Note: We do not typically refer to ourselves by our names, nor do we usually refer to people we are talking to by their names directly to them, so these pronouns are not really "replacing" anything directly.

Example 1: The author is happy. -> I am happy.
Example 2: The reader is happy. -> You are happy.

	First-Person	Second-Person
Nominative	ég	þú
Accusative	mig	þig
Dative	mér	þér
Genitive	mín	þín

The first and second-person pronouns are best learned together because their additional cases differ by only one letter.

Tip: It may help your memory to notice that "mig," "mér," and "mín" are pretty similar to "me" in English.

Conversation 1:
Person 1: Kennir pabbi þér íslensku? - (Does dad teach you Icelandic?)
Person 2: Nei, mamma kennir mér hana. - (No, mom teaches it to me.)

Conversation 2:
Person 1: Ég sakna þín. - (I miss you.)
Person 2: Ég sakna þín líka. - (I miss you, too.)

Conversation 3:
Person 1: Ég elska þig, Siggi. - (I love you, Siggi.)
Person 2: Ég elska þig líka. - (I love you, too.)

Note: Icelandic doesn't have a true vocative case (used when addressing somebody with their name), so the nominative case is used instead with rare exception. In the above example, "Siggi" is being used vocatively, so it is in the nominative case.

For practice, translate the following into Icelandic:

1. Do you love me?
2. Do you know me?
3. He doesn't miss you.

Third-Person Pronouns

The third-person pronouns replace third-person words and people. Any object that you can think that is not yourself or a person you are talking to can be replaced by one of these pronouns. Put another way, all nouns can be replaced with third person pronouns.

Example 1: I see the caeke. -> I see it.
Example 2: I see the girl. -> I see her.
Eaxmple 3: The crab eats the cake. -> It eats it.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	hann	hún	það
Accusative	hann	hana	það
Dative	honum	henni	því
Genitive	hans	hennar	þess

The third-person pronoun forms are much less consistent than the first and second-person ones, but that doesn’t mean we should neglect learning them. Taking the time to master their endings will pay off greatly in the near future when we study strong nouns, other pronouns, and adjectives.

Conversation 1:
Person 1: Hvar er hann? - (Where is he?)
Person 2: Hver? - (Who?)
Person 1: Siggi. Hvar er hann? - (Siggi. Where is he?)

Conversation 2:
Person 1: Er þetta danska? - (Is that Danish?)
Person 2: Nei, þetta er íslenska. - (No, it's Icelandic.)
Person 1: Talarðu íslensku? - (Do you speak Icelandic?)
Person 2: Nei, ég tala hana ekki. - (No, I don't speak it.)

Tip: The overwhelming majority of languages in Icelandic are weak feminine words (e.g.,"enska", "sænska", "franska").

Conversation 3:
Person 1: Gefur hann henni köku? - (Does he give her a cake?)
Person 2: Nei, hann gefur henni banana. - (No, he gives her a banana.)

Conversation 4:
Person 1: Talar Anna norsku? - (Does Anna speak Norwegian?)
Person 2: Nei, hún talar hana ekki.- (No, she doesnt speak it.)

Conversation 5:
Person 1: Hver er hún? - (Who is she?)
Person 2: Hún er Ása. - (She is Ása.)

Conversation 6:
Person 1: Saknarðu pappa? - (Do you miss dad?)
Person 2: Já. Ég sakna hans mikið. - (Yes. I miss him a lot.)

For practice, translate the following into Icelandic:

1. He gives it to her.
2. I speak it (refering to Icelandic).
3. Do you miss her?
4. He eats it.
5. She loves him, but he does not love her.