Archive for 'Uncategorized'
How is a bus like a deck of cards? Posted by hulda on Jan 24, 2014
Like mentioned in the previous post, counting in Icelandic is no simple matter, especially when you’re quickly trying to come up with a sentence that includes a number. I doubt one blog post is even enough to cover the whole counting problem, but let’s look at the basics at least. The good news: the only numbers…
Dive right in! Posted by hulda on Jan 16, 2014
How can you apply learning in practice if you don’t live in Iceland? It’s entirely possible, although it will naturally take you some extra effort. It will also pay you back well if you ever chance to visit Iceland – in some situations it’s good to instinctively know what to say, such as “hjálp” (=…
The Gusher and the Churn. Posted by hulda on Sep 23, 2013
Let’s take one last look at summer – I forgot one important part of our south Iceland camping trip! Situated in the area known also as Golden Circle is the hot spring site that includes f.ex. Geysir (= gusher), the geyser that gave its name to all geysers in the world. Another, nowadays more interesting…
The helpful helping verbs. Posted by hulda on Sep 19, 2013
Auxiliary verbs – they’re both an Icelandic language student’s best friend and worst friend*, and therefore this grammar post will be marked with all the difficulty levels from beginner to advanced. The basics are easy to learn and will come in handy when you speak because that means you won’t have to suddenly be able…
Find your Icelandic name! Posted by hulda on Aug 19, 2013
The title may sound like a meme generator but not a long time ago you really would have had to find one for yourself if you planned on moving to Iceland. This country still has a set of the strictest naming rules in the world, but did you know that until the year 1995 a…
Getting understood in Iceland: the difficult sounds R, Þ, Ð and LL. Posted by hulda on Jun 28, 2013
If studying Icelandic in a large, varied group of foreigners teaches you anything, it’s that different mother tongues create different areas of difficulty for the language learner. The most obvious hurdle arrives in pronunciation lessons, what’s difficult to an English speaker to learn will be quickly learned by a Swedish speaker, what’s near impossible for…
Icelandic blog’s competition! Posted by hulda on May 31, 2013
As the busy month of May is almost over now I was hoping you might have the time for a small competition! Here’s what you may win: – Xenophobe’s guide to the Icelanders, a book that looks at Icelanders through the eyes of a foreigner. Quite a bestseller among Icelanders themselves too! Here’s a review…