{"id":3905,"date":"2015-01-14T19:45:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T19:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/?p=3905"},"modified":"2015-01-15T12:18:41","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T12:18:41","slug":"dative-in-icelandic-throw-that-ball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/2015\/01\/14\/dative-in-icelandic-throw-that-ball\/","title":{"rendered":"Dative in Icelandic: throw that ball!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"3660097148_5d3ac33084_b\"<\/a>

Study study by Lidyanne Aquino at Flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

Genitive was covered in Holy genitive case in Icelandic, Batman!<\/a> and I touched upon accusative in Prepositions + accusative<\/a>, so let’s now look at the third one, the dative.<\/p>\n

Before we go on, one warning: Icelandic dative does not work exactly as dative is described to. For the most part \u00fe\u00e1gufall<\/em> closely resembles dative but there are many exceptions which occasionally throw it onto fields usually covered by f.ex. accusative, \u00feolfall<\/em>. For this reason I prefer using the Icelandic linguistic names for the cases since I’ve found that it helps to avoid some confusion.<\/p>\n

For finding the right case declension for any word I warmly recommend BIN here<\/a> – just remember to type the word exactly right, with right accent marks. If you miss one you may not get a result at all, or worse, you get a wrong one… my favourite example is that mig langar a\u00f0 kaupa l\u00edm<\/em>\u00a0(= I’d like to buy some glue) will get you glue, mig langar a\u00f0 kaupa lim<\/em> (= I’d like to buy some penis)… well, probably glue but with a really wide smile! By the way the difference is near impossible to pronounce. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

\"4972186190_dcfcc9e1ef_b\"<\/a>

4_Breidholt by Gummi at Flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00de\u00e1gufall<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s hard to make any exact rules when it comes to \u00fe\u00e1gufall, especially in comparison with \u00feolfall. There are certain guidelines but be prepared that there may well be exceptions to some of these rules. It may help to think that \u00fe\u00e1gufall is often answering such questions as where, to whom, when\/at what time, with what or in what way, f.ex.<\/p>\n

\u00c9g\u00a0b\u00fd \u00ed Brei\u00f0holti<\/strong>.<\/em> (= I\u00a0live in Brei\u00f0holt.)<\/p>\n

Huldu langar a\u00f0 lesa \u00f6llum<\/strong> stundum<\/strong>.<\/em> (= Hulda wants to read all the time.) Note though that you use \u00feolfall to answer\u00a0the\u00a0question “for how long” – Huldu langar a\u00f0 lesa allan<\/strong> daginn\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(= Hulda wants to read all day long), so be careful not to confuse the two.<\/p>\n

H\u00fan\u00a0var stungin sver\u00f0i.<\/strong><\/em> (= She\u00a0was stabbed with a sword. If the stabbed party is male you’ll have to use stunginn<\/strong><\/em>, the male form.)<\/p>\n

\"2355446735_77ba056d99_b\"<\/a>

Hannah in the Air by Tammra McCauley at Flickr.com<\/p><\/div>\n

1. The case-picking verbs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most typically there are verbs that only take a \u00fe\u00e1gufall after them. This is the easy part – you pretty much just learn them as they come and can rest assured that there won’t be exceptions. Verbs that will only take \u00fe\u00e1gufall are f.ex. a\u00f0 kasta<\/em> (= to throw), a\u00f0 loka<\/em> (= to close), a\u00f0 gleyma<\/em> (= to forget), a\u00f0 stela<\/em> (= to steal), a\u00f0 gefa<\/em> (= to give) and a\u00f0 svara<\/em> (= to answer).<\/p>\n

St\u00falkan\u00a0kasta\u00f0i boltanum<\/strong>.<\/em> (= The girl\u00a0threw the ball.)<\/p>\n

\u00d3lafur\u00a0svara\u00f0i henni.<\/strong><\/em> (= \u00d3lafur\u00a0answered her.)<\/p>\n

\u00c9g\u00a0gleymdi s\u00edmanum<\/strong> m\u00ednum<\/strong>.<\/em> (= I forgot my phone.)<\/p>\n

Sometimes Icelandic does something entirely illogical with these verbs as well, as goes with the verbs a\u00f0 opna<\/em> (= to open) and a\u00f0 loka<\/em> (= to close). The first one takes \u00feolfall, the latter \u00fe\u00e1gufall, so:<\/p>\n

Opna\u00f0u gluggana<\/strong>\u00a0(\u00fef.) \u00ed eldh\u00fasinu en loka\u00f0u gluggunum<\/strong>\u00a0(\u00fegf.) \u00ed svefnherberginu!<\/em> (= Open the windows in the kitchen but close the windows in the bedroom!)<\/p>\n

\"15369656540_68466d1d0b_z\"<\/a>

And I got fish by Hisa Fujimoto at Flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

2. Verbs affecting two words – here’s where it gets weird.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, what if there are two substantives or a substantive + pronoun combo after the verb? Some verbs actually demand one case first and the other one after! Gefa<\/em> is one such verb:<\/p>\n

Snorri gefur kettinum<\/strong> (\u00fegf.) fisk (\u00fef.)<\/em>. (= Snorri gives the cat fish.)<\/p>\n

While k\u00f6ttur<\/em> is in \u00fe\u00e1gufall, fiskur<\/em> is in \u00feolfall! If, when reading poetry or other text where normal word order rules don’t apply you see Snorri gefur fisk kettinum<\/em>, keep in mind that\u00a0he’s still giving fish to the cat, not the other way around. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

Other verbs that demand the first part in \u00fe\u00e1gufall but the latter in \u00feolfall are\u00a0a\u00f0 selja<\/em> (= to sell) and a\u00f0 senda<\/em> (= to send).<\/p>\n

\u00c9g sendi \u00fe\u00e9r<\/strong> fingurkoss.<\/em> (= I’m\u00a0blowing\u00a0you a kiss; fingurkoss = “finger kiss”.)<\/p>\n

A\u00f0 h\u00f3ta<\/em> (= to threaten), lofa<\/em> (= to promise) and svara<\/em> each want a \u00fe\u00e1gufall + \u00fe\u00e1gufall combination.<\/p>\n

Hann h\u00f3ta\u00f0i honum<\/strong> l\u00edfl\u00e1ti<\/strong>.<\/em> (= He threatened to kill him.)<\/p>\n

\"2726134661_12e3494fe5_z\"<\/a>

Olive snarl by Carterse at Flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

3. Verbs affecting personal pronouns<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some verbs will also demand declension for the pronoun that goes before them.\u00a0A\u00f0 l\u00edka<\/em> (= to like) and finnast<\/em> (= to find\/to consider\/to be of opinion) are examples of this:<\/p>\n

Henni<\/strong>\u00a0l\u00edkar \u00fea\u00f0 illa.<\/em> (= She doesn’t\u00a0like that.)<\/p>\n

M\u00e9r<\/strong> finnst maturinn ekki g\u00f3\u00f0ur.<\/em> (= I don’t think that the food is good.)<\/p>\n

\"13583362554_97d89bede0_z\"<\/a>

One Ring to rule them all by idreamlikecrazy at Flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

4. Prepositions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Besides verbs, prepositions occasionally take only \u00fe\u00e1gufall after them. Prepositions that can only be followed by a \u00fe\u00e1gufall are af<\/em> (= from\/by), fr\u00e1<\/em> (= from), \u00far<\/em> (= from\/out), a\u00f0<\/em> (= to\/toward), hj\u00e1<\/em> (= by\/beside\/with), handa<\/em> (= for someone), n\u00e6rri<\/em> (= near), n\u00e1l\u00e6gt<\/em> (= near), \u00e1 m\u00f3ti<\/em> (= towards), gegn<\/em> (= towards) and samkv\u00e6mt<\/em> (= according to).<\/p>\n

Fr\u00f3\u00f0i Baggi\u00a0t\u00f3k hringinn \u00far gulli<\/strong>\u00a0fr\u00e1 Gand\u00e1lfi<\/strong>\u00a0af bor\u00f0inu<\/strong> og hlj\u00f3p svo \u00fat \u00far h\u00fasinu<\/strong>.<\/em> (= Frodo Baggins\u00a0took the golden ring (that he received) from Gandalf from the table and ran outside of the house.) Hann gekk a\u00f0 dyrum<\/strong> \u00d6nnu\u00a0og bad hana a\u00f0 geyma hann handa honum<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em>(= He walked to Anna’s door and asked her to keep it for him.) \u00de\u00e1 keyr\u00f0i hann af sta\u00f0<\/strong>.<\/em> (= Then he drove out of town.)<\/p>\n

There are more prepositions that occasionally want a \u00fe\u00e1gufall, but we’ll look at those more in the next part where I’ll go through \u00feolfall in a bit more detail.<\/p>\n

\"4154780798_1353009bfb_z\"<\/a>

Warning:________ by Jason Eppink at Flickr.com.<\/p><\/div>\n

BEWARE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

There’s also a phenomena named \u00de\u00e1gufallss\u00fdki<\/em> (= dative illness)! It’s more of a problem for the natives than the learners, but if you don’t know what it is and how to recognize it you may accidentally catch it.<\/p>\n

\u00de\u00e1gufallss\u00fdki was first noticed and named in the 1920’s: it’s a habit of using \u00fe\u00e1gufall where some other case would be correct instead, usually \u00feolfall. Typical mistakes that Icelanders make are f.ex.<\/p>\n

M\u00e9r<\/del> hlakka til<\/em> – correct form:\u00a0\u00c9g hlakka til<\/strong><\/em> (= I’m looking forward to).<\/p>\n

M\u00e9r<\/del> langar \u00ed<\/em> – correct form: Mig langar \u00ed<\/strong><\/em> (= I want).<\/p>\n

M\u00e9r<\/del> vantar<\/em> – correct form: Mig vantar<\/em><\/strong> (= I’m lacking sth.)<\/p>\n

So if you hear a local \u00fe\u00e1gufall once too often try to not pick up the habit from them. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Genitive was covered in Holy genitive case in Icelandic, Batman! and I touched upon accusative in Prepositions + accusative, so let’s now look at the third one, the dative. Before we go on, one warning: Icelandic dative does not work exactly as dative is described to. For the most part \u00fe\u00e1gufall closely resembles dative but…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":3922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[91175],"tags":[10208,6,91386,10341,13],"class_list":["post-3905","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-icelandic-grammar","tag-beginner","tag-grammar","tag-icelandic-lessons","tag-intermediate","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3905"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3928,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905\/revisions\/3928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}