Icelandic Plural

Grammar Tips:

While in English, the plural is formed by adding (s) to the singular.

Icelandic has three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), two numbers (singular, plural) and four cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive).

Nouns have either a strong or a weak declension, the latter being simpler than the former.

Following are a few examples of declensions. The first two are masculine, the second two feminine. The words are the masculine hlutur (object, thing); nemandi (student), gjöf (gift, present) and saga (story). The neuter declension is similar.

 

Singular:        (strong)          (weak)                                    (strong)          (weak)

Nom:               Hlutur              Nemandi                     Gjöf                 Saga

Acc:                Hlut                 Nemanda                   Gjöf                 Sögu

Dat:                 Hlut                 Nemanda                   Gjöf                 Sögu

Gen:                Hlutar              Nemanda                   Gjafar             Sögu

 

Plural:

Nom:               Hlutir               Nemendur                  Gjafir               Sögur

Acc:                Hluti                Nemendur                  Gjafir               Sögur

Dat:                 Hlutum                        Nemendum                Gjöfum           Sögum

Gen:                Hluta               Nemenda                   Gjafa               Sagna

 

Notes:

The dative plural always ends in -um. The genitive plural always ends in -a.

In the neuter, the nominative and accusative are always identical.

Vowels often change in the declension (e.g. saga vs. sögu above). This is too complex to cover in a short introduction, but the main point is that a vowel can influence a preceding vowel.

 

There is no indefinite article but nouns can be made definite by appending an article (nemandinn (the student), sagan (the story).