Each type of noun changes in different patterns when changing from singular to plural, or between cases (which will likely be covered in later posts). That is, if they’re not “irregular” and do follow a pattern. In addition to genders, there’s also a distinction between “weak” and “strong” nouns and while still being the same gender (ex. “weak masculine” and “strong masculine”), they further change in different patterns. Strength is simply another categorization, like gender. It doesn’t matter much in nominative, but it helps to know them for the other cases.<\/p>\n
To make plural nouns (ex: cats<\/strong>) you need to find the \u201cstems\u201d of words. In that example, “cat” would be the stem because it is the piece of the word that doesn’t change. In general, you can take off these letters if they\u2019re at the end of a word to find the stem: ur, r, a, i. You take off the second consonant when there are double consonants (like steinn<\/strong> – stone, the last n would be taken off to get the stem). Then you add the new ending for that gender and number, to get the case or plural.<\/p>\n Some words are already stems ( \u201cepli – apple\u201d, \u201chaf \u2013 sea, ocean\u201d, \u201ch\u00f6ll \u2013 palace\u201d, “mynd – picture”) and in that case you wouldn\u2019t remove any letters. In this chart first the letter(s) that is the ending is listed, then an example word, and below is what you would change that ending to in order to make the plural.<\/p>\n Here is the chart for the dictionary (nominative) case, the one you will learn first:<\/p>\n Note: You’ll notice that “neuter strong” words are the same in singular and plural. How do you know when it means what? It’s just the same as in English – you can’t say you have “sheeps”, “a specie (as in species)”, or “offsprings” either.<\/em><\/p>\n For example: You’ll notice that it’s possible for a both a masculine word (afi \u2013 “grandpa”, sopi \u2013 “sip, mouthful”) and a neuter word (kaffi \u2013 “coffee”, epli – “apple”) to end in “i”. The same can happen with nouns that end in “a” for feminine (s\u00ed\u00f0a – side) and neuter (milta – spleen).<\/p>\n Often neuter words ending in “a” are body parts, neuter words ending in “i” are loanwords (but all<\/em> words that begin with “p” are loanwords – so says one of my teachers), and often items and concepts (like “car, boat”, and “time, sound”) are masculine or neuter. There is actually no precise pattern or rule, and so there is no definite way to tell the gender of a word just by looking at it alone in dictionary form. Sometimes this is even just because the word was spelled differently in older Icelandic and then they changed the spelling.<\/p>\n Exceptions: 2.) Some masculine words end in \u201cir\u201d in plural instead of \u201car\u201d. 3.) Other irregulars: A-v\u00edxl \/ A-mutation: 1.) If the ending of the word contains u. 2.) If the word is just a stem with no ending, and changes (this can work backwards too). 3.) If \u201ca\u201d is the second<\/em> vowel in the stem, it changes to \u201cu\u201d instead of \u201c\u00f6\u201d. This is because the vowel is unstressed. In Icelandic the stressed syllable is always the first syllable in a word, unless it is a compound word, but we’ll cover that in a later post<\/a>. I only have one example because all the other ones I can remember\/find aren’t nouns or aren’t in nominative case. Exceptions: 2.) If the first vowel in a stem is \u201ca\u201d but the second vowel isn\u2019t, the rule doesn\u2019t apply: 3.) Only \u201ca\u201d will change, \u201c\u00e1\u201d will not: 4.) “Au” will not change. This is because it’s a “dipthong”, which basically means that it’s a “special vowel pair” and is treated kind of like a single letter in some regards. Remember the spelling rule for au?<\/a> That is also because it’s a dipthong. If this is hard to imagine, look at how in English ae was sometimes spelled \u00e6 and oe was \u0153 (you’ll mostly notice this when reading classics), they had their own characters in the alphabet. 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…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i958.photobucket.com\/albums\/ae69\/JuicyPuffin\/Living%20in%20Iceland\/Screenshot2012-04-14at093025.png\")
<\/p>\n
\nB\u00e6r (town), sala (sale), steinn (stone), spurning (question).
\nThe stems are: b\u00e6, sal, stein, spurning*.
\nThen you tack on the new endings:
\nB\u00e6ir (towns), s\u00f6lur* (sales), steinar (stones), spurningar (questions).
\n*See below for -ing endings and see the “a-mutation” section for why sala changes to s\u00f6lur.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n1.) When a noun ends in \u2013ing (\u00e6fing \u2013 training, practice, drill) it is feminine and becomes plural by adding \u2013ar (\u00e6fingar \u2013 drills).
\nTilfinning – sensation, sentiment, feeling
\nEining – solidarity, harmony, unit
\nBl\u00e6\u00f0ing – bleeding<\/p>\n
\nHvalur (whale) \u2013 hvalir (whales)
\nVinur (friend) \u2013 vinir (friends)<\/p>\n
\nMasculine: Ma\u00f0ur (human, man) \u2013 menn (men)
\nMasculine: Sk\u00f3r (shoe) \u2013 sk\u00f3r (shoes)
\nMasculine: Herra – “mister, lord”
\nFeminine: Mi\u00f0st\u00f6\u00f0 (center) – mi\u00f0st\u00f6\u00f0var (centers)<\/p>\n
\nNotice how the “a” in “sala” changes to “\u00f6” in “s\u00f6lur”? This is due to a rule called the “a-mutation”, or “a-v\u00edxl” (v\u00edxl – alternation) in Icelandic. I mentioned this in a previous post<\/a>. This affects all word types in Icelandic, not just nouns. There are three rules for this:<\/p>\n
\nSaga (story) \u2013 s\u00f6gur (stories)
\nSala (sale) \u2013 s\u00f6lur (sales)
\nTaska (bag) \u2013 t\u00f6skur (bags)
\n\u00c9g tala (I talk) \u2013 vi\u00f0 t\u00f6lum (we talk)<\/p>\n
\nBarn (child) \u2013 b\u00f6rn (children)
\nBla\u00f0 (page) \u2013 bl\u00f6\u00f0 (pages)
\nH\u00f6fn (harbor) \u2013 hafnir (harbors)
\nTj\u00f6rn (pond) \u2013 tjarnir (ponds)<\/p>\n
\nEitt hundra\u00f0 (one hundred) \u2013 tv\u00f6 hundru\u00f0 (two hundred). “Hundred” changes to plural because there are “two hundreds” in “two hundred”.<\/p>\n
\n1.) Hattur. This is because in Old Icelandic it was \u201chattr\u201d. The \u2013ur is a relatively recent change.<\/p>\n
\nAg\u00farka (cucumber) \u2013 ag\u00farkur (cucumbers)<\/p>\n
\nS\u00e1la (soul) \u2013 s\u00e1lur (souls)<\/p>\n
\nauga (eye) – augu (eyes)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2012\/04\/Screenshot2012-04-14at093025-350x125.png\")