Tag Archives: vocabulary
Hafa, eiga, vera með. Posted by hulda on May 4, 2012
Sequoia already went briefly over these three, but I decided to dig a little bit deeper into them and the other rules that are tied to these verbs. Besides, repetition is the mother of all learning! There are three ways of showing ownership in Icelandic, or better said three verbs for it: eiga, hafa and vera…
The old Nordic calendar. Posted by hulda on Apr 25, 2012
It’s finally summer, at least going by the old Nordic calendar! Last Thursday (19th April) was Sumardagurinn fyrsti, the first day of summer. Despite commonly using the Gregorian calendar just like everybody else, Icelanders still note certain parts of the year according to their old one, Norræna tímatalið, often called Germanic calendar in English. It…
Noun Genders and A-mutation Posted by sequoia on Apr 17, 2012
I haven’t taught anything in a while, so today we have “genders of nouns”. Again this is taken partially from the textbook I’m writing. It’s very important to know the gender of nouns because how you change other parts of the sentence (like adjectives, which also have genders) depends on what gender the noun is…
English cognates and slang in Icelandic Posted by sequoia on Apr 14, 2012
There’s lots of English slang in spoken Icelandic, and a bit less in written. (EDIT: Please see Alex’s comment for notes about “cognates” and “false friends”, etc. as well as good examples!) In person Icelanders, when chatting with friends, might use straight English words for things that may not exist in Icelandic, that have a…
Þetta reddast, þetta kemur. Posted by hulda on Apr 10, 2012
One of the most Icelandic expressions I can think of is Þetta reddast, “it’ll work out”/”it’ll fix itself”. It’s used in any kind of a situation where someone’s facing a problem, no matter how difficult. It can be anything ranging from a confusing schedule at work to a situation that’s so desperate it would take…
Gleðilega Páska! Posted by hulda on Apr 5, 2012
Happy Easter to all you readers! The holidays have begun in Iceland and we’re now living the dymbilvika/kyrravika (Holy Week). I’m not counting last Sunday’s Pálmasunnudagur (Palm Sunday) because the actual páskafrí (Easter holiday/vacation) officially started today and to Icelanders that is what matters the most. Freely quoting my boyfriend and a teacher of mine…