Weak Nouns

While learning Icelandic, it is extremely helpful to learn words in groups because it makes the learning process more efficient. Instead of memorizing each word individually, we can study entire groups that follow the same patterns, making our learning process much smoother and more effective.

While we can and will group words by part of speech (e.g., nouns, pronouns, verbs), we can also organize words within each part of speech based on their characteristics.

In this lesson, we are going to focus on a specific subset of nouns: weak nouns!

What Are Weak Nouns

Weak nouns are nouns that end in a vowel in all their singular forms (e.g., pappi, mamma, hjarta). They are the first type of noun that we are going to look at since they inflect very simply. Unlike strong nouns, which may have irregular changes, weak nouns follow a predictable pattern, making them one of the easiest types to learn.

Note: In this lesson, we will focus on learning one pattern for each type of weak noun, though other patterns exist. The others patterns will be covered in future lessons.

Weak Masculine Nouns

Weak masculine nouns change their ending vowel from i to a.

Example 1: Þetta er pabbi. - (This is dad.)
Example 2: Ég elska pabba. - (I love dad.)
Example 3: Ég hjálpa pabba. - (I help dad.)
Example 4: Ég sakna pabba. - (I miss dad).

Tip: Icelanders do not use "my" when refering to family members if the context is sufficiently clear.

Because these nouns are all masculine, we use masculine pronouns to refer to them.

Example 5: Þetta er asni. Hann heitir Þór. - (This is a donkey. His name is Þór.)

For practice, try replacing pabbi with the name Siggi or Bjarni.

Weak Feminine Nouns

Weak feminine nouns change their ending vowel from a to u.

Note: many weak feminine nouns have an "a" in their stems. When their ending is changed to a "u", this "a" changes to an "ö". This process is called u-umlaut, and it will be touched upon more in a later lesson.

Example 1: Þetta er mamma. - (This is mom.)
Example 2: Ég elska mömmu. - (I love mom.)
Example 3: Ég hjálpa mömmu. - (I help mom.)
Example 4: Ég sakna mömmu. - (I miss mom).

Because these nouns are all feminine, we use feminine pronouns to refer to them.

Example 5: Þetta er panda. Hún heitir Helga. - (This is a panda. Her name is Helga.)

For practice, try replacing mamma with the name Freyja or Anna. Remember umlaut for Anna.

Weak Neuter Nouns

Weak neuter nouns are the easiest of all. They don't change their vowel at all, so they are the same in all the cases.

There are very few weak neuter nouns, the most notable group of which are body parts. As such, our example sentences will all be non-sensical, but the important thing is that you see the declension process in action.

Example 1: Þetta er hjarta. - (This is a heart.)
Example 2: Ég elska hjarta. - (I love a heart.)
Example 3: Ég hjálpa hjarta. - (I help a heart.)
Example 4: Ég sakna hjarta. - (I miss a heart.)

Because these nouns are all neuter, we use neuter pronouns to refer to them.

For practice, try replacing the word hjarta with the words lunga (lung) and eyra (eye).

Practice

Now that you know how to inflect weak singular nouns, you should be able to determine their gender in context! For practice, try to identify the gender of the noun in the examples and then identify what their nominative case form should look like if they are not in the nominative already. Don’t worry about the meaning of the sentences—just focus on analyzing the context to determine the gender.

Example 1: Hann sagði mér sögu.
Example 2: Þetta er listi yfir íslenska myndlistarmenn.
Example 3: Hann var ekki í jakka!
Example 4: Móðurmálið hans er enska.\ Example 5: Hún á fallega dúkku.
Example 6: Api býr í búðinni.

Hint: None of these words are neuter.