Past tense (Þátíð)

Past tenses – simple past, recent past, past continous

We use the simple past tense to indicate completely finished actions or events. If what happened is very close to the present moment or the effects from it are still present, we use the construction vera búin/n að + infinitive.

Hún er búin að borða. (She has finished eating.)

Hann er búinn að lesa bókina. (He is finished reading the book.)

In this case, búin/n is an adjective and undergoes declension, depending on the grammatical case, gender and number. You can see all of its forms here. We will look at it in detail in a separate post.

One more construction to mention is vera (in past tense) + að + infinitive. This construction is used to express past continuous tense:

Ég var að læra alla helgina. (I was studying the whole weekend.)

Simple past (Þátið)

The verbs can be either strong or weak, depending exactly on the way they form past tense. The weak verbs have a suffix added to the stem (-ð,-d,-t) and in strong verbs, there are vowel changes + new endings.

Past tense can be hell since a lot of sound changes occur in the strong verbs. However, there is some pattern in these changes, so it’s not all so bad.

Weak verbs

Weak verbs are pretty easy to conjugate. The only treacherous thing is to choose which one of the suffixes to use, but there is actually a rule:

• -ð if stem ends in r,f or g; a-category verbs

Persóna	að tala (a-category verb) (to talk, to speak)
Ég	talaði
Þú	talaðir
Hann/Hún/Það	talaði
Við	töluðum
Þið	töluðuð
Þeir/Þær/Þau	töluðu

að gera (to do) – ég gerði,

að horfa (to watch) – ég horfði,

að segja (to say)- ég sagði

• -d if stem ends in m,n,l or ð

Persóna	að gleyma (to forget)
Ég	gleymdi
Þú	gleymdir
Hann/Hún/Það	gleymdi
Við	gleymdum
Þið	gleymduð
Þeir/Þær/Þau	gleymdu

að muna (to remmeber) – ég mundi

að skilja (to understand)- ég skildi

að ræða (to discuss) – ég ræddi

• -t if stem ends in t,s,k,p or d

Persóna	að brosa (to smile)
Ég	brosti
Þú	brostir
Hann/Hún/Það	brosti
Við	brostum
Þið	brostuð
Þeir/Þær/Þau	brostu

að bæta (to compensate, to patch)- ég bætti

að vaka (to wake, to be awake)- ég vakti

að æpa (to scream, to shout)- ég æpti

að henda (to throw) – ég henti

Strong verbs

No matter what the sound change in the stem is, the endings after the stem are the same:

Persóna
Ég	–
Þú	–st
Hann/Hún/Það	–
Við	-um
Þið	-uð
Þeir/Þær/Þau	–u

Common sound changes to occur are:

Infinitive	Past (1st person singular)	Past (1st person plural)	Past participle
í að bíta (to bite)	ei beit	i bitum	i bitið
jó/jú að bjóða (to invite, to offer)	au bauð	u buðum	o boðið
e/i að brenna (to burn)	a brann	u brunnum	o/u brunnið
e að stela (to steal)	a stal	á stálum	o/u stolið
í/е að lesa (to read)	a las	á lásum	е lesið
а að fara (to go)	ó fór	ó fórum	a/е farið
various að láta (to let)	é lét	é létum	various látið
various að hlaupa (to run)	jó hljóp	ju/u hlupum	various hlaupið

Have in mind that in each of these patterns there are deviations from the pattern for some verbs and then there are verbs that do not quite follow a pattern.

Irregular verbs

The irregular verbs do some crazy stuff to form past tense, such as:

Infinitive	Present (1st person singular)	Past (1st person singular)	Past (3rd person plural)	Past participle
að eiga (to own)	á	átti	áttum	átt
að kunna (can)	kann	kunni	kunnum	kunnað
að mega (may, can)	má	mátti	máttum	mátt
að muna (to remеmber)	man	mundi	mundum	munað
að munu (will, shall)	mun
að skulu (will)	skal
að þurfa (to need)	þarf	þurfti	þurftum	þurft
að vera (to be)	er	var	vorum	verið
að vilja (to want)	vil	vildi	vildum	viljað
að vita (to know)	veit	vissi	vissum	vitað

Tips for learning

1. You need to learn the present tense verbs conjugation because you need to know which verbs belong to the A and I-categories, which most often take weak declension, and to the other categories, which most often take strong declension.
2. Focus first on the verbs that you would use most often in your everyday speech, describing your activities and hobbies.
3. Try to practice the conjugation with íslenska.is and see the patterns of vowel stem changes. You can also pick a random verb and try to conjugate it in your notebook. If you remember easier when writing, this might be a good way to get used to conjugate the verbs. You can then check the right conjugation in bin.arnastofnun.is. 
4. Think of some sentences, check the words that you need in the dictionary and then try to conjugate the verb in the sentence. Try to have some fun – think about some crazy stories.
5. Write sentences in the present tense and then turn them into past tense sentences.
6. Learn the irregular verbs by heart – there is just no other way.

Present tense (Nútíð)

The present tense is one of the two simple tenses in Icelandic. As with the nouns, the verbs are divided into categories and it can not be determined only by the infinitive to which category the verb belongs to since most verbs end in -a.

The names of the categories refer to the endings of the verbs included in them in the third person singular.

The verbs are either weak or strong, depending on the way they form the past tense. In strong verbs, a vowel change in the stem occurs, while in weak verbs a suffix is added to the stem. Аpart from the division of strong and weak verbs, which is clear, the classification of verbs by categories is organized in different ways so you can see the verbs organized in different number and type of categories.

I-hljóðvarp (I-umlaut)

There are a lot of vowel stem changes, happening in the first, second and third person singular:

• a, o, ö → e

að fara → ég fer

að koma → ég kem

að slökkva → ég slekk

• jó, jú, ú → ý

að bjóða → ég býð

að ljúga → ég lýg

að búa → ég bý

• á → æ

að fá → ég fæ

að ná → ég næ

• au → ey

að hlaupa → ég hleyp

U-hljóðvarp (U-umlaut)

a → ö in first person plural, because of the -um suffix:

ég tala → við tölum

Category I (A-category)

Persóna	að tala (to speak, to tell)
Ég	tal-a
Þú	tal-ar
Hann/hún/það	tal-аr
Við	töl-um
Þið	tal-ið
Þeir/Þær/Þau	tala

Category II (I-category)

Persóna	að læra (to learn)
Ég	lær-i
Þú	lær-ir
Hann/hún/það	lær-ir
Við	lær-um
Þið	lær-ið
Þeir/Þær/Þau	lær-a

Category III (UR-category)

Persóna	að koma (to come)
Ég	kem
Þú	kem-ur
Hann/hún/það	kem-ur
Við	kom-um
Þið	kom-ið
Þeir/Þær/Þau	kom-a

Category IV (stem ends in s or r)

Persóna	að lesa (to read)	að fara (to go)
Ég	les	fer
Þú	les-t	fer-ð
Hann/hún/það	les	fer
Við	les-um	för-um
Þið	les-ið	far-ið
Þeir/Þær/Þau	les-a	far-a

Category V (stem ends in a vowel or j)

Persóna	að þvo (to wash)	að skilja (to understand)	að segja (to say)
Ég	þvæ	skil	seg-i
Þú	þvæ-rð	skil-ur	seg-ir
Hann/hún/það	þvæ-r	skil-ur	seg-ir
Við	þvo-um	skil-j-um	seg-j-um
Þið	þvo-ið	skil-j-ið	seg-ið
Þeir/Þær/Þau	þvo	skil-j-a	seg-j-a

Note that j in second person plural disappears if there is a g or a k in the stem (að segja, að reykja).

In other classifications, the last three categories are unified in one category, called O-category.

It doesn’t actually matter how you will learn them, just choose what seems the best structured one to you.

I will once again recommend the exercises in íslenska.iz as a good way to get used to the endings. If you want to see all forms of a verb, then use bin.arnastofnun.is, where you can see the conjugation of a verb in all tenses, moods, and voices.

Verbs: Overview

It is always nice to get a glimpse of the full picture. This is why I decided to first make an overview of the verbs (tenses, moods, voices) and then continue with separate posts with details for each of these aspects.

Tenses

There are only two simple tenses in Icelandic – simple present and simple past (nútið og þátíð):

Nútíð: Ég hleyp á hverjum degi. (I run everyday.)

Þátíð: Ég hljóp í gær. (I ran yesterday.)

All other tenses are formed with auxiliary constructions and form
sagnasambönd (compound verb phrases), most often including the auxiliary verbs:

• að vera (to be)*

Nútíð: Ég er að lesa bók núna. (I am reading a book now.)

Þátíð: Ég var að lesa bók í gær. (I was reading a book yesterday.)

Þátíð: Ég var að lesa bók þegar þú komst heim. (I was reading a book when you came home.)

• að ætla (to intend, to be going to do something)*

Ég ætla að fara í bíó. (I intend to go to a movie.)

• að munu (will, shall)**

Hann mun koma á morgun. (He will come tomorrow.)

• að skulu (will, shall – could be promising and threatening)**

Ég skal vaska upp. (I will do the dishes.)

Other auxiliary verbs in compound verb phrases that do not serve as constructions, functioning as tenses, but are often used are:

• að mega (may, can)**
• að vilja (to want)**
• að eiga (to own)*
• að verða (to become)*
• að þurfa (to need)*

These constructions require:

*auxiliary verb+að+infinitive

**auxiliary verb+infinitive

Ópersónulegar sagnir (Impersonal verbs)

If there is an impersonal verb in the sentence, the subject is the receiver of the action and it is in accusative or dative, while the verb is always in the third person.

Let’s take for example the verb að dreyma (to dream).  If you want to say: I dream to go to Iceland, you wouldn’t say Ég dreymi að fara til Íslands, using nominative for the subject and conjugating the verb in the first person. Að dreyma requires the subject to be in accusative and because it is an impersonal verb, the verb should be in the third person. The correct sentence would be: Mig dreymir um að fara til Íslands.

If we try to translate it into English literally, it would sound strange: It dreams to me of going to Iceland, but the actual translation is: I dream of going to Iceland.

The impersonal verbs are most often used to express emotions, feelings, needs, ideas, mental state.

In English, the impersonal verbs are used often in weather descriptions (it rains, it snows and so on).

Moods

• nafnháttur (infinitive)

The infinitive of the verb is basically the name of the verb, its main form. In sentences the infinitive is most commonly used in compound phrases:

Ég er að borða. (I am eating.)

• framsöguháttur (indicative mood)

This mood is used to express facts, statements, opinions, to ask questions. It is called ‘the mood of reality’.

Hann vinnur. (He works)

Ég mun koma. (I will come)

• boðháttur (imperative mood)

This mood forms commands and requests.

Segðu mér sögu! (Tell me a story!)

Biddu adeins! (Wait a minute!)

Du, ðu or tu are added to the stem of the verb, depending on which is the last letter of the stem.

• viðtengingarháttur (subjunctive mood/conditionals)

This mood is used in cases of uncertainty, assumption, possibility, hope, indirect speech, condition, politeness.

Gætir þú sagt mér hvað klukkan er? (Could you tell me what time is it?)

Hún sagði að hann færi í bruðkaupið. (She said that he would go to the wedding.)

The subjunctive mood subdivides into viðtengingarháttur nútíðar (subjunctive mood of the present) and
viðtengingarháttur þátíðar (subjunctive mood of the past).

• lýsingarháttur (descriptive mood)

The descriptive mood can also be in the present (lýsingarháttur nútíðar) and in the past (lýsingarháttur þátíðar).

The descriptive mood in the present is usually used with the verb að vera.

Hún er sitjandi. (She is sitting.)

Þau eru standandi. (They are standing.)

The verbs in this mood end in -andi. It is important to make a difference between the descriptive voice and the construction að vera+infinitive. The descriptive voice cannot be used to describe actions, which are being performed at the moment.

The descriptive mood in the past is used with the verbs hafa, geta and vera (og verða)+ past participle.

Ég hef spilað borðspil. (I have played board games.)

Ég get keyrt bíl. (I can drive a car.)

The participle after hafa and geta has one form that does not undergo declension.

The participle after vera and verða is declined according to the gender and number and in most cases functions as an adjective or can express passiveness:

Hún er elskuð af kærastanum sínum. (She is loved by her boyfriend.)

Hann er elskaður. (He is loved.)

Voices:

• germynd (active voice) – the subject is doing the action: Hann kyssir hana. (He kisses her.)
• miðmynd (middle voice) – the subject both performs and receives the action: Þau kyssast. (They kiss each other.)
• þolmynd (passive voice) – the action is being performed upon the subject: Hún er kysst. (She is kissed.)

When I read that there are only two simple tenses in Icelandic, I thought that this is completely fair because the nouns are hard enough, so at least the verbs may be a little less complex. When all of the above was presented to me, I understood it was all just a wishful thinking. I guess there is nothing easy about Icelandic after all! Still not impossible to be learned though.