Icelandic lesson of the day

Athuga

• • When talking to or about someone, gender is an important part of Icelandic conversation and speech. For example, when greeting a man, you must say Komdu sæll, blessaður or sæll. To a woman, you would say Komdu sæl, blessuð, or sæl
  • If the situation is informal, you can just say Hæ or Bæ regardless of gender
  • When there is a group of people of mixed gender, you could say Komið þið sæl og blessuð
  • When you want to welcome someone, you also must take into account the gender of the listener. If you are welcoming a man, you say Velkominn, if a woman, you say Velkomin. If you are welcoming a group of people, you also would say Velkomin
  • Although Allt í lagi means okay (Ok!), you will of course also hear ókei, said the same as the English okay
  • As you may have noticed, Góðan daginn (or Góðan dag) means both good morning and good afternoon. Icelanders use this greeting from the early morning hours (after midnight) until slightly before dinner time. In Iceland, since there is sunlight almost 24 hours in the summer months and about 4 hours in the winter months, using these greetings based on how it looks outside is not a good reference
  • Remember that the letter Æ is pronounced like the English i in mine. Refer back to the Alphabet and Pronunciation page if you are struggling with reading words in Icelandic. The phonetic pronunciation will go away after this lesson, since Icelandic words are pronounced as they are read. Therefore, it is essential that by the end of this lesson, you are comfortable with the Icelandic alphabet and how it is pronounced

Fornöfn (Pronouns)

Pronouns are nouns which substitute other nouns in a certain phrase or sentence. For example, in English pronouns are I, you, he, she, it. In Icelandic they are:

English	Icelandic		English	Icelandic
I	Ég		We	Við
You	Þú		You (plural)	Þið
He	Hann		They (masculine)	Þeir
She	Hún		They (feminine)	Þær
It	Það		They (neuter)	Þau