Icelandic Víðsýni

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 14 - writing letter

Icelandic - English

Elsku Jón - Dear John

Ferðalagið var frábært - My trip was very nice

Menningin og fólkið voru mjög áhugaverð - The culture and people were very interesting

Ég skemmti mér vel með þér - I had a good time with you

Ég vil endilega koma aftur til lands þíns - I would love to visit your country again

Ekki gleyma að skrifa mér tilbaka annað slagið - Don't forget to write me back from time to time

[chenopodiumlang]

Four cool family words in Icelandic

mæðgur (fpl) - mother and daughter

mæðgin (npl) - mother and son

feðgar (mpl) - father and son

feðgin (npl) - father and daughter

[icelandicpancake]

Icelandic grammatical cases | Pancake

That’s a very good pancake. // Það er mjög góð pönnukaka. // nom, sing, indef. Which stuffed pancake did you like best? // Hvaða fylltu pönnuköku fannst þér best? // acc, sing, indef. My brain feels like a pancake. // Heilanum minn líður eins og pönnuköku. // dat, sing, indef. Don’t touch my pancake! // Ekki snertu pönnuköku minnar! // gen, sing, indef. Her first pancake didn’t turn out that good. // Fyrsta pönnukakan hennar gafst ekki mjög vel. // nom, sing, def. There are no fruits left for the last pancake. // Engir ávextir eru eftir fyrir síðustu pönnukökuna. // acc, sing, def. It’s almost time to turn the pancake over. // Það er næstum kominn tími til að snúa pönnukökunni við. // dat, sing, def. And now put the filling on the other half of the pancake. // Og settu nú fyllinguna á annan helming pönnukökunnar. // gen, sing, def. Rolled pancakes look so cute! // Upprúllaðar pönnukökur líta svo krúttlega út! // nom, pl, indef. He’s going to bake pancakes. // Hann ætlar að baka pönnukökur. // acc, pl, indef. She gave them a big plate of pancakes. // Hún gaf þeim stóran disk af pönnukökum. // dat, pl, indef. Have you ever lost a cookie among pancakes? // Hefurðú nokkurn tíma týnt smáköku meðal pönnukaka? // gen, pl, indef. The pancakes aren’t ready yet. // Pönnukökurnar eru ekki tilbúnar ennþá. // nom, pl, def. Do you want me to pour some syrup on your pancakes? // Viltu að ég helli sírópi á pönnukökurnar þínar? // acc, pl, def. There are lots of desserts, but let’s start with the pancakes. // Það er til fullt af eftirréttum, en við skulum byrja á pönnukökunum. // dat, pl, def. Place the filling between the pancakes. // Setjið fyllinguna á milli pönnukakanna. // gen, pl, def.

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 13 - Romanic phrases

Icelandic - English

Rómantík - Romance

Ertu laus annað kvöld? - Are you free tomorrow evening?

Mig langar til að bjóða þér til kvöldverðar - I would like to invite you to dinner

Þú ert falleg - You look beautiful! (to a woman)

Nafnið þitt er fallegt - You have a beautiful name

Segðu mér meira frá sjálfri þér - Can you tell me more about you?

Ertu gift? - Are you married?

Ég er einhleypur - I'm single

Ég er giftur - I'm married

Má ég fá símann hjá þér? - Can I have your phone number?

Má ég fá netfangið þitt? - Can I have your email?

Áttu einhverjar myndir af þér? - Do you have any pictures of you?

Áttu börn? - Do you have children?

Viltu koma í gönguferð? - Would you like to go for a walk?

Ég kann vel við þig - I like you

Ég elska þig - I love you

Þú ert afar sérstök - You're very special!

Þú ert afar vinsamleg - You're very kind!

Ég er afar hamingjusamur - I'm very happy

Viltu gitftast mér - Would you marry me?

Ég er að grínast - I'm just kidding

Mér er alvara - I'm serious

Hjarta mitt talar máli ástarinnar - My heart speaks the language of love

Þetta er kona mín - This is my wife

Þetta er maðurinn minn - This is my husband

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 12 - Polite Cuss words

Icelandic - English

Þetta er vitleysa - This is nonsense! (or: this is craziness)

Guð! - My God! (to show amazement)

Vá! - Oh gosh! (when making a mistake)

Þetta er glatað! - It sucks! (or: this is not good)

Hvað er að þér? - What's wrong with you?

Ertu ruglaður! - Are you crazy?

Drullaðu þér í burtu! - Get lost! (or: go away!)

Láttu mig vera! - Leave me alone!

Ég hef engan áhuga - I'm not interested!

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 11 - Emergency

Icelandic - English 

Neyðar- og lífsbjargarfrasar - Emergency Survival Phrases

Hjálp! - Help!

Stopp! - Stop!

Eldur! - Fire!

Þjófur! - Thief!

Hlauptu! - Run!

Passaðu þig! - Watch out! (or: be alert!)

Hringdu á lögregluna! - Call the police!

Hringdu á lækni! - Call a doctor!

Hringdu í sjúkrabíl! - Call the ambulance!

Er allt í lagi með þig? - Are you okay?

Mér líður ekki vel - I feel sick

Ég þarfnast læknis- I need a doctor

Slys - Accident

Matareitrun - Food poisoning

Hvar er næsta apótek? - Where is the closest pharmacy?

Mér er illt hérna - It hurts here

Það er áríðandi! - It's urgent!

Róaðu þig niður - Calm down!

Þetta verður allt í lagi! - You will be okay!

Geturðu hjálpað mér? - You will be okay!

Get ég hjálpað þér? - Can I help you?

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 10 - Asking for directions

Icelandic - english 

Að biðja um hjálp og leiðbeiningar -  Asking for Directions

Afsakið mig! - Excuse me! (before asking someone)

Ég er týndur/týnd - I'm lost

Geturðu hjálpað mér? - Can you help me?

Get ég hjálpað þér? - Can I help you?

Ég er ekki héðan - I'm not from here

Hvernig kemst ég hingað? - How can I get to (this place, this city)?

Farðu beint áfram - Go straight

Svo - Then

beygirðu til vinstri - Turn left

beygirðu til hægri - Turn right

Geturðu sýnt mér? - Can you show me?

Ég get sýnt þér! - I can show you!

Komdu með mér! - Come with me!

Hvað tekur langan tíma að komast þangað? - How long does it take to get there?

Miðbær - city center

Hann er ekki langt frá - It's near here

Hann er langt frá - It's far from here

Er hann í göngufæri? - Is it within walking distance?

Ég er að leita að (Name) - I'm looking for (name)

Augnablik! - One moment please!

Hinkraðu aðeins! - Hold on please! (when on the phone)

Hann er ekki við - He is not here

Flugvöllur - Airport

Strætóstöð - Bus station

Lestarstöð - Train station

Leigubíll - Taxi

Nálægt - Near

Langt frá - Far

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 9 - Solving misunderstanding

Icelandic - english Að leysa misskilning - Solving a Misunderstanding Afsakið! - Sorry! (or: I beg your pardon!) Fyrirgefðu - Sorry (for a mistake) Ekkert mál! - No problem! Geturðu endurtekið? - Can you repeat please? Geturðu talað hægar? - Can you speak slowly? Geturðu skrifað það niður? - Can you write it down? Skilurðu hvað ég sagði? - Did you understand what I said? Ég skil ekki! - I don't understand! Ég veit það ekki! - I don't know! Hvað kallast þetta á íslensku? - What's that called in Icelandic? Hvað þýðir þetta orð á ensku? - What does that word mean in English? Hvernig segi ég (English word) á íslensku? - How do you say (English word) in Icelandic? Hvað er þetta? - What is this? Hafðu ekki áhyggjur! - Don't worry! Ég er sammála þér - I agree with you Er það rétt? - Is that right? Er það rangt? - Is that wrong? Hvað á ég að segja? - What should I say? Ég þarf bara að æfa mig - I just need to practice

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 8 - Daily expressions

Icelandic - english

Frasar af handahófi - Daily Expressions

Hvað er klukkan? - What time is it?

It's 3 o'clock Hún er þrjú

Komdu með þetta! - Give me this!

Ertu viss? - Are you sure?

Gjörðu svo vel! - Take this! (when giving something)

Kanntu vel við það? - Do you like it?

Ég kann mjög vel við það - I really like it!

Ég er svangur - I'm hungry

Ég er þyrstur - I'm thirsty

Hann er fyndinn - He is funny

Á morgnana - In The Morning

Á kvöldin - In the evening

Að nóttu - At Night

Flýttu þér! - Hurry up!

About the weather

Það er skítkalt - It's freezing

Það er kalt - It's cold

Það er heitt - It's hot

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 7 - essential words

Icelandic - English

Stuttir frasar og orð - Short Expressions and words

Gott - good

Slæmt – bad

La-la – so-so/not so bad

Stórt - big

Lítið – small

Í dag – today

Núna - now

Á morgun – tomorrow

Í gær -  Yesterday

Já – yes

Nei – no

Hratt – fast

Hægt – slow

Heitt – hot

Kalt – cold

Þetta – this

Þetta – that

Hérna – here

Þarna – there

Ég – me (ie. Who did this? - Me)

Þú – you

Hann – him

Hún – her

Við – us

Þau – them

Í alvöru? - Really?

Sjáðu! - Look!

Hvað? - What?

Hvar? - Where?

Hver? - Who?

Hvernig? – how?

Hvenær? – When?

Hvers vegna? – Why?

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 6 - Countries & Languages

List of countries and languages - not complete 

Icelandic to English 

Lönd - Countries

Ísland - Iceland

Ástralía - Countries

Kambódía - Cambodia

Kanada - Canada

Kína - China

Egyptaland - Egypt

England - England

Frakkland - France

Þýskaland - Germany

Grikkland - Greece

Indland - India

Indónesía - Indonesia

Ítalía - Italy

Japan - Japan

Mexíkó - Mexico

Marokkó - Morocco

Perú - Peru

Spánn - Spain

Taíland - Thailand

Bandaríkin - USA

Tungumál - Languages

Íslenska- Icelandic

Arabíska - Arabic

Kínverska - Chinese

Enska - English

Franska - French

Þýska - German

Gríska - Greek

Hebreska - Hebrew

Hindú - Hindi

Ítalska – italian

Japanska - Japanese

Kóreska - Korean

Latína - Latin

Rússneska - Russian

Spænska - Spanish

Urdú - Urdu

Víetnömska - Vietnamese

Mongólska - Mongolian

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 5 - polite conversations

Icelandic - english

Að kynna þig - How to Introduce Yourself

Hvað heitirðu? - How to Introduce Yourself

Ég heiti (Jón Jónsson) -  My name is (John Doe)

Gaman að hitta þig! - Nice to meet you!

Hvaðan ertu? Where are you from?

Ég er frá (country) – I am from (country)

Bandaríkjunum – The USA

Íslandi - Iceland

Ég er (nationality)  – I am (Nationality)

Bandaríkjamaður – American

Íslendingur - Icelandic

Hvar áttu heima? - Where do you live?

Ég bý í Bandaríkjunum – I live in the U.S.A

Ég bý á Íslandi - I live in Iceland

Kanntu vel við þig hér? - Do you like it here? (in Iceland)

Ísland er fallegt land - Iceland is a beautiful country

Hvað gerirðu? - What do you do for a living?

Ég er (Job) - I'm a (Job)

Kennari - Teacher 

Námsmaður - Student 

Verkfræðingur - engineer 

Talarðu ensku – Do you speak English?

Hvað ertu gamall/gömul - How old are you?

Ég er (number) ára - I'm (number) years old

phrases to help explain Icelandic abilities when interacting 

Talarðu íslensku – Do you speak Icelandic?

Bara lítið - Just a little

Ég kann vel við íslensku - I like Icelandic

Ég er að reyna að læra íslensku - I'm trying to learn Icelandic

Það er erfitt tungumál - It's a hard language

Það er auðvelt tungumál - It's an easy language

Ó! Það er gott! - Oh! That's good!

Get ég æft mig á þér? - Can I practice with you?

Ég reyni mitt besta til að læra (tungumálið) - I will try my best to learn

Það var gaman að tala við þig! - It was nice talking to you!

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 4 - counting numbers

Icelandic - English 

númer – numbers

einn – one - 1

tveir – two - 2

þrír – three - 3

fjórir – four - 4

fimm – five - 5

sex – six - 6

sjö – seven -7

átta – eight - 8

níu – nine - 9

tíu – ten - 10

ellefu – eleven - 11

tólf – twelve - 12

þrettán – thirteen - 13

fjórtán – fourteen - 14

fimmtán – fifteen -15

sextán – sixteen - 16

Sautján seventeen - 17

Átján – eighteen - 18

Nítján – nineteen - 19

Tuttugu – twenty – 20

þrjátíu - thirty - 30

fjörutíu - forty - 40

fimmtíu - fifty- 50

sextugur - sixty – 60

sjötíu - seventy – 70

áttatíu - eighty – 80

níutíu - ninety – 90

Hundrað – hundered - 100

eitt þúsund - one thousand -1000

þúsund - thousand - 1000

milljón – million – 1,000,000

From 21 and up, numbers are formed by adding the units on the end of the tens.

tuttugu og eins - twenty one - 21

þrjátíu og tveir – thirty two – 32

Tens og unit

The first four numbers in Icelandic are declined like nouns, in gender and case.

Masculin - Feminine - neutral  - number in English

Einn - ein - eitt   - One

Tveir - tvær - tvö  - two.

Þrír - þrjár - þrjú   - three

Fjórir - fjórar - fjögur  - four

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 3 - Special Greetings

holiday and special greetings

Icelandic - English 

Þegar maður óskar einhverjum einhvers - Holidays and Wishes

Gangi þér vel! - Good luck!

Til hamingju með afmælið - Happy birthday!

Gleðilegt nýtt ár! - Happy new year!

Gleðileg jól! - Merry Christmas!

Gleðilega páska - Happy Easter

Gleðilegan þjóðhátíðardag - Happy Independence Day

Til hamingju! - Congratulations!

Verði ykkur að góðu! - Enjoy! (or: bon appetit)

Guð hjálpi þér - Bless you (when sneezing)

Til hamingju - Best wishes!

Skál! - Cheers!

Silaði kveðju frá mér - Accept my best wishes

[icelandicvidsyi]

Icelandic Vocab 2 - greetings

More detailed list of Icelandic greetings and polite conversation 

Icelandic - English

Greeting - Kveðjur

Hæ! – Hi

Góðan dag! – good dady/ good morning

Gott kvöld! - Good evening!

Velkomin! - Welcome! (to greet someone)

Sæll kæri vinur! - Hello my friend!

Hvað segirðu? - How are you?  (friendly)

Hvernig hefurðu það? - How are you? (polite)

Response to how are you

Mjög gott, takk! - I'm fine, thank you!

En þú? - And you?

Gott – Good

Ágætt - Not so good

Langt síðan ég hef séð þig - Long time no see

Ég hef saknað þín - I missed you

Er eitthvað í fréttum? - What's new? –

Ekkert nýtt - Nothing new (response to what new)

Gratitude

Takk þér - Thank you (very much)!

Takk þér  kærlega fyri - thank you very much!

Ekkert að þakka! - You're welcome!  (response to thank you)

Mín var ánægjan - My pleasure

Kom inn! - Come in!  

Láttu eins og heima hjá þér! - Make yourself at home!

Kveðjur - Farewell Expressions

Hafðu það gott! - Have a nice day!

Góða nótt! -  Good Night

Góða nótt og dreymi þig vel! - Good night and sweet dreams!

Sjáumst síðar! - See you later!

Sjáumst! - See you soon!

Sé þig á morgun - See you tomorrow!

Bless! - Good bye!

Góða ferð! - Have a good trip!

Ég verða að fara  - I have to go

Kem að vörmu spo - I will be right back!

[aspoonfuloflanguage-deactivated]

Yay another colours vocab list! This time, it’s in Icelandic. As always, if there are any mistakes please let me know. I hope you enjoy :)

Note: All of the cards were made by yours truly, but all of the background images were found on Google. If an image is yours and you would like me to remove it, just send me a message.

[asterlearns]

Why Icelandic is Easy to Learn

There seems to be this idea out there that the Icelandic language is an incredibly difficult language for English speakers to learn, so when I first started studying it I was a bit nervous. However, although I still haven’t been studying it for very long, I’ve yet to run across anything that’s scared me off, and quite a bit that actually makes it quite easy to pick up as a native English speaker. So to cast off some of the stigma, here are some things that make Icelandic easy to learn (or at least not as horrifying as I’d been led to believe):

Spelling is very consistent. Icelandic spelling is mostly phonetic, where each letter represents only one sound. While there are a few instances where letters aren’t pronounced exactly the same, the variations are regular so you can learn when they’re said differently instead of just having to guess, and over time they will become natural with practice. French is supposed to be relatively easy for English speakers to learn due to shared vocabulary, but Icelandic beats French hands down in this area.

Most of the sounds are similar to English. Many of the letters are pronounced basically just like English, and while it might look a little intimidating with all the extra vowels with accent marks and so on, most of those are sounds we actually have in English, they just represent them explicitly in Icelandic, which actually helps with the point about spelling above. Here is a great video that very clearly explains the Icelandic alphabet, and as you can see, out of the 14 vowels/diphthongs there are only 3 that aren’t in English. So sure, there are some sounds that aren’t in English, but that’s going to happen in almost any language, and Icelandic doesn’t seem to be any worse in this area than German, for example. In fact, if you know both German and English, you’re pretty much set when it comes to Icelandic phonemes.

The stress is always the same. In Icelandic words are always pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. In Spanish, for example, the stress changes based on which letters a word ends with and whether or not there are any accent marks, so you have to learn those rules and then memorize each exception so you know where to put the accent, and it can be a little tricky. In Icelandic there is only one rule that never changes, making it super simple.

There are only four cases. Okay, if you’ve never studied a language with cases before, having any at all can be a bit daunting coming from English since we don’t really use them much, but if you’re going to learn a language with cases only having four is pretty great! It’s the same number of cases as German has, and waaay better than Slavic languages that can have six or seven, and there are other languages which have even more.

There are only three new characters to learn. A lot of people seem to be intimidated by the special characters Ðð, Þþ, and Ææ, but if you compare those three measly characters to languages like Greek, Russian, Arabic, or even Japanese – which has two separate syllabaries on top of thousands of kanji to learn – you can see how it’s nothing at all. Best of all, those characters represent sounds that already exist in English, so you can easily learn how to pronounce them. Ð is pronounced as the ‘th’ in ‘breathe’, Þ as the ‘th’ in ‘breath’, and æ as the ‘i’ in ‘hi’. In fact, if you want to say “Hi!” in Icelandic it’s exactly the same: “Hæ!” Similarly, “Bye!” is “Bæ!” You can see too how the spelling here is consistent in Icelandic, using only one character to represent the same sound, while in English we use ‘i’ in one word and ‘ye’ in the other, and in other words we might use even more spellings for the same sound, such as ‘ai’ or ‘y’, or even ‘igh’ (like in ‘sigh’). So even though you do have to learn a few new characters, it’s hardly any, and once you’ve learned them it actually makes Icelandic much easier to read and spell than it would be without them.

A lot of vocab comes from the same Germanic roots as English words. While English has borrowed a bunch of vocab from Latin languages, it still contains many words that come from its Germanic origins, which it shares with Icelandic. You’ve already seen hæ and bæ, and there’s also halló (hello), dóttir (daughter), móðir (mother), hér (here), frá (from), takk (thanks), heitt (hot), kalt (cold), hjálp (help), fiskur (fish), nót (net), undir (under), mús (mouse), and many more.

Basic grammar is very similar to English. Like I’ve said, I haven’t been studying long so I’m sure there’s more complicated stuff coming up, but in the basics I’ve run across so far the word order is so similar to English that you can pretty much take an English sentence and switch out the English words for their Icelandic versions and have a correct sentence. Some examples:

I am…

Ég er…

You are… 

Þú ert…

I am from Canada.

Ég er frá Kanada.

Are you from Iceland?

Ert þú frá Íslandi?

I am not from Spain.

Ég er ekki frá Spáni.

They come from Japan.

Þau koma frá Japan.

I don’t know about you, but the above doesn’t seem so difficult to me. Even if you haven’t learned the pronunciation yet, the grammatical structure is very familiar and many of the words look similar to their English counterparts.

Of course there are difficult things about Icelandic, but there are difficult things about every language. Icelandic is certainly not an impossible language to learn, and there are many things about it that are actually quite simple compared to other languages, or at the very least not any worse. If you’ve considered learning Icelandic, but were hesitant after hearing how terribly difficult it supposedly is, maybe this will show that it doesn’t have to be so scary after all.