Adjectives: Overview

How do you feel? How blue is the sky today? How would you describe yourself?

At some point, after learning the noun and article declensions, you will want to describe these nouns and for this purpose, you will need the adjectives.

In Icelandic, the adjectives agree with the gender, number and the grammatical case. The nominative singular masculine form of the adjective in its strong declension is the one you will see in the dictionary. It may or may not have an ending (the whole word can be a stem). In the dictionaries, if the adjective has an ending, you will see it separated from the stem with a slash (ensk/ur). It is important to know what the ending is, because when declining the adjective, the ending is removed and new endings are added to the stem.

The adjectives can have weak and strong declension, depending on their use in the sentence.

Weak declension

If an adjective is modified by the article or by pronouns (the demonstrative pronouns this and that, for example), weak declension is needed:

I met the English queen. (Ég hitti ensku drottninguna.)

In the sentence above, since the noun (drottning) has a definite article, the weak declension is used. The verb að hitta governs the accusative case (þf.) and drottning is a feminine noun in singular, so the form we need is ensku:

Weak declension table, singular:

	kk. eintala	kvk. eintala	hk. eintala	kk. fleirtala	kvk. fleirtala	hk. fleirtala
nf.	enski	enska	enska	ensku	ensku	ensku
þf.	enska	ensku	enska	ensku	ensku	ensku
þgf.	enska	ensku	enska	ensku	ensku	ensku
ef.	enska	ensku	enska	ensku	ensku	ensku

As you can see, the weak declension is pretty easy and there are only three forms of the adjective (with suffixes -i,-a,-u).

Strong declension

You can see categorization of the adjectives by groups, depending on their ending (-r/-ur/-l/-n) or the lack of such in the nominative, but we will look at them just as slight deviations from the standard declension.

When undergoing strong declension, the adjectives have more different forms. Do not panic though! Some of the forms, like the dative and genitive plural, are identical for all genders, so the actual endings to remember are fewer.

Strong declension table:

ensk/ur (english)

	kk. eintala	kvk. eintala	hk. eintala	kk. fleirtala	kvk. fleirtala	hk. fleirtala
nf.	enskur	ensk	enskt	enskir	enskar	ensk
þf.	enskan	enska	enskt	enska	enskar	ensk
þgf.	enskum	enskri	ensku	enskum	enskum	enskum
ef.	ensks	enskrar	ensks	enskra	enskra	enskra

A lot of changes occur in the nominative singular case. As you can see, the feminine adjectives are without an ending and the neuter get -t as an ending. If there is a in the stem, the u-shift (we covered it in short in this post) occurs in some of the forms. The a changes into ö (u in unstressed position), if the next syllable contains u:

a→ö svart/ur (black):

	kk. eintala	kvk. eintala	hk. eintala	kk. fleirtala	kvk. fleirtala	hk. fleirtala
nf.	svartur	svört	svart	svartir	svartar	svört
þf.	svartan	svarta	svart	svarta	svartar	svört
þgf.	svörtum	svartri	svörtu	svörtum	svörtum	svörtum
ef.	svarts	svartrar	svarts	svartra	svartra	svartra

Note that no -t is added to the neuter form if the ending is preceded by consonant + d/t as is in svart/ur (it is just svart, not svartt).

a→ö , a→u gamal/l (old)

	kk. eintala	kvk. eintala	hk. eintala	kk. fleirtala	kvk. fleirtala	hk. fleirtala
nf.	gamall	gömul	gamalt	gamlir	gamlar	gömul
þf.	gamlan	gamla	gamalt	gamla	gamlar	gömul
þgf.	gömlum	gamalli	gömlu	gömlum	gömlum	gömlum
ef.	gamals	gamallar	gamals	gamalla	gamalla	gamalla

The stress in Icelandic is on the first syllable, so the second a is unstressed and changes into u, which triggers the first a to change into ö.

This adjective is also an example for loss of a vowel – the second a disappears in some of the forms (gam_la, gam_lar, göm_lum). It is called fraction and occurs when an ending beginning with a vowel (-a,-an,-u,-ir,-ar,-um) is added, in order to ease pronunciation. The fraction does not occur in adjectives ending in -legur though.

Furthermore, -r endings (-ri, -ra,-rar) in -l/l or -n/n adjectives are assimilated. In this case, you can see that instead of r, l is added, so instead of gamalrar, the genitive form in feminine singular is gamallar. Let’s see an example with -n/n adjective:

búin/n (done, finished):

	kk. eintala	kvk. eintala	hk. eintala	kk. fleirtala	kvk. fleirtala	hk. fleirtala
nf.	búinn	búin	búið	búnir	búnar	búin
þf.	búinn	búna	búið	búna	búnar	búin
þgf.	búnum	búinni	búnu	búnum	búnum	búnum
ef.	búins	búinnar	búins	búinna	búinna	búinna

Again, in -r endings, -n is added instead (-ni,-nar,-na). There is a little change of the forms in masculine singular (accusative remains the same as nominative) and neuter singular (-ð is added instead of -t). I is lost in some of the forms (bú_na, bú_nu, bú_nar, bú_nir) – when an ending beginning with a vowel is added and the n is not doubled.

Now, back to the u-shift. It does not occur if there is another syllable with a different vowel after the syllable with a:

falleg/ur (beautiful):

	kk. eintala	kvk. eintala	hk. eintala	kk. fleirtala	kvk. fleirtala	hk. fleirtala
nf.	fallegur	falleg	fallegt	fallegir	fallegar	falleg
þf.	fallegan	fallega	fallegt	fallega	fallegar	falleg
þgf.	fallegum	fallegri	fallegu	fallegum	fallegum	fallegum
ef.	fallegs	fallegrar	fallegs	fallegra	fallegra	fallegra

In this case the adjective ends in -ur. When the final -r or -ur is not an ending but a part of the stem instead, the feminine form stays the same as the masculine. Same goes for adjectives without an ending, when the stem ends in -s or -n+consonant:

viss (sure):

	kk. eintala	kvk. eintala	hk. eintala	kk. fleirtala	kvk. fleirtala	hk. fleirtala
nf.	viss	viss	visst	vissir	vissar	viss
þf.	vissan	vissa	visst	vissa	vissar	viss
þgf.	vissum	vissri	vissu	vissum	vissum	vissum
ef.	viss	vissrar	viss	vissra	vissra	vissra

If the stem ends in a vowel, one more -r is added before -r ending:

hlý/r (warm):

	kk. eintala	kvk. eintala	hk. eintala	kk. fleirtala	kvk. fleirtala	hk. fleirtala
nf.	hlýr	hlý	hlýtt	hlýir	hlýjar	hlý
þf.	hlýjan	hlýja	hlýtt	hlýja	hlýjar	hlý
þgf.	hlýjum	hlýrri	hlýju	hlýjum	hlýjum	hlýjum
ef.	hlýs	hlýrrar	hlýs	hlýrra	hlýrra	hlýrra

J-insertion happens in adjectives whenever -ý,-æ or -ey are followed by -a or -u ending (hlýja).

Note that t in neutral singular forms is doubled if the ending is preceded by a vowel (hlý/r).

Adding -t in neutral adjectives can cause also ð to change into t:

ð→t , góð/ur (good):

	kk. eintala	kvk. eintala	hk. eintala	kk. fleirtala	kvk. fleirtala	hk. fleirtala
nf.	góður	góð	gott	góðir	góðar	góð
þf.	góðan	góða	gott	góða	góðar	góð
þgf.	góðum	góðri	góðu	góðum	góðum	góðum
ef.	góðs	góðrar	góðs	góðra	góðra	góðra

There are a lot of rules, but at first, try only to remember the declension endings and then try to pay attention to insertions, assimilations, fractions, shifts and all other occurring changes, when you see them in action.

What I do not like about some learning materials is the lack of overview. While so many tables and rules can be overwhelming at first, I find it useful to have in mind the changes and to start noticing them when I see the word in use, instead of wondering what is this form and why is it so different than the original.