The Infinitive Form

Lets take half a step back and learn about the infinitive form because the infinitive form of a verb is the most common and useful form of a verb to know.

The Infinitive Form

As mentioned in the last lesson, verbs conjugate to match their person and their tense. But verbs can also be an unconjugated from known as the infinitive. This form does not contain information about who is doing the action, when it is happening, or anything else; it just represents the action itself.

In English, you can recognize the infinitive form by the word to appearing before the verb. Notice how these verbs do not have any time period or subject attached to their meaning?

Example 1: To eat
Example 2: To bake
Example 3: To talk

In Icelandic, you can typically recognize the infinitive form by the word að appearing before the verb.

Example 1: Að borða
Example 2: Að baka
Example 3: Að tala

The Stem and Ending

Icelandic verbs are made up of two parts: the stem and the ending. The ending is the part of the word that changes during conjugation--in the infinitive form, this is nearly universally the letter a. The stem is the part of the word that comes before the ending. Because the stem stays the same, you can recognize the word in all of its conjugated forms.

Example 1: Að tala
Example 2: Þú talar.
Example 3: Hann talar.
Example 4: Ég tala.

Now I Know:

• the infinitive form of a verb is the unconjugated form of the verb
• you can recognize the infinitive form of a verb by the word *að coming before it
• Icelandic verbs end in a in the infinitive form
• what the stem and the ending of a verb are