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Introduction to Declension

Now that you have a basic understanding of conjugation, it is time to learn some basics of declension. Declension is the inflection of nominals, such as nouns. For native English speakers, understanding how declension works is often cited as the hardest aspect of Icelandic grammar to master since there is not a great modern English example or phenomenon to compare it to. As a result, English speakers often quickly feel overwhelmed and have difficulty distinguishing when they should use one form of a word in Icelandic versus when they should be using another.

Declension In English​

English nouns do not inflect very much. As a result, nouns do not 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.

Pronouns​

The best way to illustrate declension in English is by using pronouns. Consider the following two sentences.

Example 1: I talk to him.
Example 2: I talk to she.

While example 1 is perfectly grammatical, example 2 is not. Without me even telling you, your brain can sense that the word she is what was wrong with the example, even if you don't know why. What's more, your brain may have even correctly told you that you have to say her in that second example instead of he. Before I explain why that is, please take a second to ask yourself why she does not work in example 2 but her would. Don't both words mean the same thing?

The answer is that your brain, even if you don’t realize it, is very good at English grammar and knows that she and her fill different grammatical niches.

The pronoun she, along with a few others such as I, she, we, and the other subjects we've been talking about, fill a certain grammatical niche that her cannot: being used as subjects of verbs. All the pronouns that can fill this niche can be swapped in for one another in nearly any sentence, and that sentence will still make sense grammatically.

Note: Remember what we learned about third-person singular conjugations needing to end with "-s" in English!

Example 1: I bake.
Example 2: You bake.
Example 3: We bake.

We can group all of the pronouns that fill this niche together into one group called a case.

These pronouns have separate forms, such as me, her, and us, that represent the same things as the nouns, but these versions can not be the subjects of verbs. Instead, they have to be objects (a noun that receives the action of the verb). We can group them into another case. Notice how in the three sentences below, the bolded words are not the subjects. They are not the doers. They are the object of the verb, the things being seen.

Example 1: He sees me.
Example 2: He sees her.
Example 3: He sees us.

Even though the two different forms of these words represent the same noun(s), you can never use them interchangeably. That is the heart of declension: different forms of words are used for different purposes. Below, find the declension table for first-person pronouns.

1st per.Sing.Plur.
Sub.Iwe
Obj.meour

While the table for I has all unique forms, most English pronouns do not have separate forms fro teh different cases. Below, find the declension tables for second-person pronouns and the third-person pronouns.

2nd per.Sing.Plur.
Sub.youy'all
Obj.youy'all
3nd per.Sing.Plur.
Sub.he*they
Obj.him*them

Try to imagine what a similar table would look like for other pronouns, including she and it.

Tip: Remember, does English have separate forms of they depending on gender?

Regular English Nouns​

Regular nouns experience declension, too! But most nouns don't have unique forms between the cases, only changing for singular and plural. Consider the table for horse, a normal English noun.

horseSing.Plur.
Sub.horsehorses
Obj.horsehorses

Some nouns have the same form for everything. Moose is one of these words. Can you think of any others?

mooseSing.Plur.
Sub.moosemoose
Obj.moosemoose

Declension In Icelandic​

Icelandic has four cases instead of two*, and nearly every noun and pronoun has all unique forms. Below, see the declension pattern of the word hestur (horse).

hesturSing.Plural.
Nom.hesturhestar
Acc.hesthesta
Dat.hestihestum
Gen.hestshesta

Icelandic does not refer to their cases by subject or object. Instead, the Icelandic cases have recognized names. In English, these named are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. For best practice, these names should be taken at face value. The cases could be called case 1, case 2, case 3, and case 4 and nothing would functionally change.

Since nouns always have to be in a case and number--there is no equivalent of an infinitive form. Instead, the nominative singular form is used to talk about a noun in a non-grammatical context, such as when it appears by itself on a sign, when the word is being discussed in another language, or when the word is written in the dictionary.

In the next lesson, you will learn more about when each form is used!

Now I Know:​

  • what declension is

  • how cases are represented in declension tables

  • how many cases exist in Icelandic grammar

  • the names of the cases in Icelandic