Icelandic/Grammar/Nouns

Nafnorð Nouns Nouns are words that describe a person, place, thing, or idea. For example: Sarah ran away. Reykjavík is beautiful. Cars pollute, but are essential. When you are sad, think of good memories. In Icelandic, these take on endings and inflections like verbs and personal pronouns do in English. Gender In Icelandic, like most other Indo-European languages (but not English), nouns have a gender. A noun can be either masculine, feminine, or neuter. A noun's gender rarely has anything to do with biological gender, except in words for male or female people, animals, etc.; nouns used for non-living things like furniture have gender too. The gender of nouns can usually be determined by the ending it has (or does not have). This is not a guaranteed rule, but it does usually work. Memorization, however, is the only way to really know the gender of a noun. All nouns are classified as "strong" or "weak". This does not affect their semantic function; it only affects their declension. Typical noun endings Gender/Strength Strong masculine Weak masculine Strong feminine Weak feminine Strong neuter Weak neuter Endings -ur, -ll, or -nn -i -ing, -un, or has no ending -a, -i Has no ending, or final vowel is accented -a Examples hestur, stöll, steinn lampi, nemandi spurning, byrjun, rós taska, fræði hótel, bakarí auga Meanings horse, stool, stone lamp, student question, beginning, rose bag, studies hotel, bakery eye Definite vs. indefinite article There is no indefinite article in Icelandic. What would be "a" or "an" in English is "built into" Icelandic nouns, so to speak. Hestur translates to a horse, for example. The definite article (equivalent to English the) can be formed in two ways in Icelandic, either by adding an ending to a noun or using a definite article before it. The definite article, in addition to its English usage, is also used in Icelandic to refer to concepts. skóli (without article): "a school" skólinn (with article): "the school" (a specific school) "school" (the concept of school) Definite article endings Masculine Feminine Neuter -(i)nn -(i)n -(i)ð These are added to the end of a noun of the corresponding gender. With the previous example of hestur, saying "the horse" would be hesturinn. If the noun ends in a vowel that is not accented, the i is dropped from the ending before being added. As an example, herbergi (a room) becomes herbergið with the definite ending. Bakarí would become bakaríið, because the final vowel is accented. If using a definite article before the adjective, the definite article is formed by adding the appropriate ending to the letter h (i.e. hinn, hin, and hið). This usage is largely poetic, and is rare in normal conversation. However, the word hinn is also used as a demonstrative pronoun, equivalent to English "that" or "the other" (of two objects). Adjective placement With a definite article Just the same as in English, adjectives come after the definite article and before the noun. Hið góða bakarí er í Reykjavík. The good bakery is in Reykjavík. With a definite ending If an ending has been used to form the definite then the adjectives come after the noun and the noun usually begins the sentence. Góði dagurinn er búinn. The good day is over. Although this section is about nouns, notice the difference in spelling of góða and góði. Both mean the same thing, but adjectives must also be in the correct form according to the gender of the noun. Note Some Icelandic words can acquire the opposite meaning with the prefix: -ó With nouns: Vinur ~ Óvinur Friend ~ Enemy. Veður ~ Óveður Weather ~ Bad weather. With adjectives: Skemtilegur ~ Óskemtilegur Funny ~ Boring. Dýr ~ Ódýr Expensive ~ Cheap.