Introduction to Inflection
As a native English speaker, the most important thing to understand about Icelandic is that it functions very differently from English. Icelandic is a heavily inflected language, but English is not.
What Is Inflection?
Inflection refers to the process whereby a word changes its ending to show different pieces of information or create new meanings. These pieces of information can include who is doing something, when it’s happening, or whether something is singular or plural. In a less-inflected language, like English, these pieces of information are typically supplied by word order or additional words.
Note: Grammatical inflection is completely different than the kind of inflection meant by modulating the pitch of one’s voice.
Inflection In English
English words do not inflect very much. As a result, words are not going to change their endings very much. Consider how the word horse is the same in the first three examples below.
Example 1: This is a horse.
Example 2: I saw a horse.
Example 3: I gave a horse an apple.
Below, you will find the translations of these sentences into Icelandic. Notice how the word has different endings? That is inflection at work!
Example 1: Þetta er hestur.
Example 2: Ég sá hest.
Example 3: Ég gaf hesti epli
The only real inflection that English nouns (words that represent a person, place, thing, or idea) undergo is to follow extremely regular and consistent rules. In English, you add an -s or -es to the end of a noun to change it from singular to plural (one to many), and you add the words a or an or the before the noun to make it indefinite or definite (roughly, non-specific or specific). Notice below how these simple additions change what images and ideas come to mind.
Example 1: A horse eats.
Example 2: The horse eats.
Example 3: Horses eat.
Example 4: The horses eat.
The same thing goes for English verbs (words that represent actions): there are only a few simple and fairly regular rules to follow. For example, you add an -s to the end of the word when the subject (the one doing the action) is he, she, or it, and you add an -ed to the end to change the verb from the present tense (when the verb is happening) into the past tense. Again, notice how these simple changes completely change the meaning of the sentence.
Example 1: I bake bread.
Example 2: He bakes bread.
Example 3: I baked bread.
Example 4: He baked bread.
Overall, English inflection is much simpler than Icelandic.
Inflection In Icelandic
As shown by the earlier example with the word hestur, Icelandic words can change much more than English words can. There are more possible endings, and the endings change for more reasons than they do in English.
While there are typically only four possible forms for each noun in English (a horse, horses, the horse, the horses), there are up to sixteen different forms for each noun in Icelandic! For Icelandic verbs, too, instead of just a few forms, there can be over a hundred possibilities depending on the verb in question! This is what it means when people say that Icelandic is heavily inflected; there are many different forms for each word!
What makes this difficult for non-natives is that the abundance of forms does not mean that there are many more valid ways to say something in Icelandic. Instead, it means that you must be more careful in choosing the right words to say what you are trying to say. Since using the correct inflection largely depends on grammar, you need to have a better sense of grammar to speak Icelandic than you typically do for English. This course will help you achieve that good grammar sense!
While mastering Icelandic inflection can seem daunting, with time and practice, it will become as natural and effortless as it is in English.
Now I Know:
- inflection refers to words changing their endings
- English does not have as much inflection as Icelandic does
- inflection is important because it provides additional information