Being a native Swede has in many ways been quite helpful when learning Icelandic vocabulary, like hearing that E is almost the same as the Swedish /Ä/, but I'm worried about /Å/ bleeding into my Icelandic speech.

I recognize that /Å/ as its own letter doesn't exist in Icelandic, but to my ears pronunciation guides such as Ylhýra make O sound really similar to /Å/, with Ó being a rounder version of the letter. Instead, Ú is what I would say the Swedish /O/ sound like. Am I on the right track here, or should I stop trying to compare sounds between different languages lol.

I'd also like to know if there are any good resources online for comparing Swedish and Icelandic? I feel like I can find loads for Icelandic-Norwegian and Icelandic-Danish (not very unsurprising given their close proximity and shared history), but haven't found any good ones for Icelandic-Swedish yet.

EDIT: I had another question I forgot about. I know that I and Y are the exact same sound in Icelandic, but is there anything that's similar to the Swedish /Y/ sound? It's quite hard to explain, if you're also a Swede you'll know what I mean.

This question is quite hard for me to explain. I’ve recently been doing some Icelandic Pronunciation on YouTube, and one of the things I learn is that in ‘rl’ the l is pronounced as an airy ll, and whenever I try to pronounce words like Karl (the example shown on the video), I always pronounce it like ‘karall’ and not ‘karll.’ In short, I really struggle to pronounce the r before the soft ll. Does anyone know how i could fix this?

Let's say I live on the street named Álfatún.

Someone asks me formally where do I live.

Do I fallbeygi that and say Álfatúni? Hm? How does that work?

Hi all. I'm in my 30s and decided that I want to start a long term plan to move to Iceland within the next 10 or so years.

I thought that the first thing I would like to do is become competent in conversational Icelandic. I was sign posted to Pimsleur's Icelandic audiology.

Personally I have found this quite useful and the lessons seem to be coming to me quite naturally. However, I'm curious how others have found it and whether or not it is accurate?

Hey there, Swedish native speaker here trying to learn my mother tongue's granddaddy. During my learning I've been comparing the grammar of both languages to help me understand some concepts in Icelandic that I don't immediately intuit on first viewing, seeing as they're both North Germanic languages. I'm well aware of people's opinions on this and take care to do it within reason and not force every single grammar concept in Icelandic into a way that fits Swedish grammar.

Having said that, I was wondering if any Icelandic people here who also speak Swedish/are familiar with Swedish can explain ætla to me. Ylýra and the (brilliant) Icelandic for foreigners YouTube channel explain that ætla is basically a way of conveying intent to a sentence talking about a future action. I've also heard it explained as a way of being polite, similar to "I wonder if I can get a coffee" in English. Additionally, it's apparently used in a similar manner to the first example, but in a sentence talking about the past, where the usage of ætla indicates that you didn't perform the action.

As a Swede, this usage sounds and feels very similar to the way we use the words ska and skulle, plus kom and kommer, as a way of communicating intent, and especially politeness in the case of skulle and kommer when in the right contexts. Would I be able to use ætla and its conjugations in the same way as the words above, or is there something I still haven't understood about the word that prevents that usage?

Thanks for any answers I get!

Ég er að lesa Biblíuna og sá orðið “karlynja” fyrir kona. Hvað merkir það nákvæmlega og hvernig er orðið myndað?

“Þá sagði maðurinn: "Þetta er loks bein af mínum beinum og hold af mínu holdi. Hún skal karlynja kallast, af því að hún er af karlmanni tekin."

I was recommended that one so I bought it since it was about 1USD. I find it pretty easy to use, but I was caught off guard by its complete lack of sound. I figured a paid option would work better than the free ones in every way.

I'm not regretful, but seeing as I already paid, what would you recommend as something of a companion app to quickly check pronunciations, hopefully faster than manually typing everything into Google, which is slow because I can't copy/paste from the app? I have checked through the pinned list, but I'd appreciate a quick recommendation for something specifically geared toward pronunciation so I can skip testing each one out.

Hello, I struggle with knowing wether a word ends with two or one n at the end.

For example, hugur, (mind)

Her mind

Hugurinn or hugurin hennar?

How do I know how many n´s? Cause this is about greinar?

So I was taught there are 4 föll in Icelandic

Nf. - hér er

Þf. - um

Þgf. - frá

Ef. - til

And that´s it? Let´s say we have the word 'borð', so there´s only 4 different forms of that word?

So only variations of this word is

borð

borð

borði

borðs

Can someone explain this to me?

Sæl!

I was wondering what the difference is between using "þannig" and "svo" as and adverb. I have been searching for a while and can't find anything on it. Translations say it means something like "so".

"það var svo gaman að..." eða "Það var þannig gaman að..."

Með fyrirfram þökk!

Like I am studying poetry in High school and I completely don´t get it. What is it called it English? And can you explain briefly?

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I was just wondering if maybe someone would like to practice Icelandic with me, and in exchange, I can tutor the other person in Spanish or help them practice this language.

My level is very rudimentary, but I am eager to learn and have no problem helping my interlocutor first until I have developed better language skills to talk in Icelandic.

New Real Icelandic Club video. I hope it's useful. https://youtu.be/mDxrnlhJGmY?si=iBy0UOxeTIYW0XUT

Hello! I'm confused about which word is correct, "to ask". Thanks.

Hello. I am living in Canada and I notice that I can speak Icelandic (my native language) worse and worse because I only speak English. Is there a resource to talk to other Icelandic people online? takk fyrir!!

Memrise seems to have had an update and now works with AI etc. There is still a discount on the pro version, but it’s quite pricey (not for a language app in general, just pricey for me, haha). Has anyone tried premium for Icelandic? How was it?

So I’m planning on moving to Iceland shortly to be a nurse in one of the hospitals in Reykjavik, my name is incredibly British and I was wondering how I can adjust/change it to be more natural and easy for my patients. My name is Elspeth (el-sputh) Edwards, any help at all is greatly appreciated!!

Halló allir

I’m an Icelandic learner from Italy, originally from Ukraine. My full name is Mirko Karlovich Kardivskiy, and I’m exploring how to adapt it into Icelandic. I’d greatly appreciate your insights on this :)

1. Karlovich

This is not a surname, but my Ukrainian patronymic, similar to the Icelandic patronymics. In my patronymic Karlovich, the stress falls on the first syllable -kar (KARlovich). Since it’s derived from my father’s name, Carlo, this feels straightforward to adapt. Icelandic patronymics follow a similar structure, so I could easily change it to Karlsson (or Karlson with one s?).

Alternatively, if I were to adapt it to Icelandic based solely on the original spelling, would something like Karlovitsj or Kárlovitsj work better? Where would you place the diacritics?

2. Kardivskiy

My surname Kardivskiy has the stress on -div (karDIVski). I understand that the -skiy ending would typically be simplified to -ski in Icelandic, as Icelandic names don’t use -y endings. However, I’m unsure about how to incorporate diacritics like í or ó, which are quite common in Icelandic orthography.

Here are some options I’ve been considering: • 2.1 Add an í to the stressed syllable: Kardívski. • 2.2 Place the í on the last syllable: Kardivskí. • 2.3 Use í on both the stressed syllable and the final syllable: Kardívskí.

Which of these feels the most natural or authentic in Icelandic? (ChatGPT doesn’t seem to be consistent or knowledgeable about this one, and my own understanding of Icelandic is very basic)

3. Mirko

For my first name, Mirko, the stress falls on -mir (MIRko). Should I adapt it as: • 3.1 Mírko (keeping it closer to the original stress), • 3.2 Mirkó • 3.3 Mírkó (using Icelandic-style diacritics more liberally)

Which option would look and sound most natural to Icelandic speakers?

Summary:

How would you recommend I adapt my full name Mirko Karlovich Kardivskiy into Icelandic?

Thank you so much for your help! Þakka þér fyrir!

I've joined around 6 "Learning Icelandic" servers, and one or two "Learning Nordic Languages" servers, and it seems like people verbally learning Icelandic is gate kept in just about every single one of them, when you ask if someone would be willing to in voice chat, they directly tell you that they would prefer to stay in the general, I don't understand why you would build a server around learning a language, then gate keep people verbally learning the language, I feel like they're should at least be a beginners Icelandic vc, and encouragement to go in it and learn, it seems like the only people that they actually want to speak Icelandic with in vc are people that are already good in the language, which is very counterproductive because the whole point is to teach people the language that aren't good in it yet.

I have been studying for about 6 months and really enjoying it. This sub is super helpful too. Bit of a tangent here: I was watching the matrix, noticed the “temet nosce” sign..was looking at different translations of this phrase “know thyself” around the world and interpretations etc. How would a native Icelandic speaker translate know thyself in regards to the more philosophical interpretation as opposed to the literal. Thanks!

Hello friends, im glad to finally being able to show this to you, a finalized version of an editorial work for a beowulf translation to icelandic lost in time.

As you know beowulf is one of the most important pieces of literature we have written in old english, with the origin of this history being very probable viking,

this translation to the now icelandic language opens us a door for its timeless contents.

and would a useful resource for icelandic learners

hope you can enjoy it

https://gitlab.com/yebjhaeran.ve/bjolfskviha

I hope this isn’t a question that has been asked millions and millions of times , But i really struggle to hear the difference between thorn and eth. I read that þ is voiceless and ð is voiced but i struggle to hear a difference when i’m listening, especially in the rare occurrence a word contains both

eg þjóðvegur or þjóðir

can anyone help ?

Hello. I’ve been working on time phrases, but there are some of them that I cannot seem to figure out the differences in meaning of.

1. Í ár

2. Á þessu ári

3. Þetta ár

4. Í viku

5. Í vikunni

6. Þessa víku

Really, i think I’m looking for more of a “what’s going on here” type answer, as I feel there is likely some system here I just haven’t cracked. Like why is it “Á” with “þessu ári” but “í” with just “ár.” I know normally it depends on the noun, but something just seems weird here.

Hey there everyone! I wish all of you a happy New Year! I'm a Belgian guy living in Japan at the moment. I've always loved the Icelandic language and I would love to master it. I'm a beginner now, and would love to learn the basics. Simple words and simple sentence forming etc.. Are there any good apps on the google play store that you guys would recommend? Regardless of whether it's paid or not. Any kind of advice is welcome! I appreciate it!

I am currently using the book Complete Icelandic written by Hildur Jónsdóttir paired with other online resources to bring me to a B1 level (as the book promised) and am wondering what resources to use once I reach that level in order to progress further in learning the language. Just looking it up doesn't appear to be helpful at the moment.

Hello, I am currently learning Icelandic through getting children's books, this is my first book; Græðikisan (The Greedy Cat). I am puzzled on the translation of the first sentence.

It reads: Gunnvör græðikisan gat ekki kvartað

• Gunnvör is a name (I assume?)
• Græð is profit, kisa is cat (pussy)
• Not sure what gat in this context is, Google translate says hole, but that doesn't make sense
• Ekki is 'not'
• kvartað is to complain

So it reads Gunnvör's greedy cat does not complain?

Can anyone help with this transition and help provide a bit of an explanation please? Takk fyrir

Does it mean "You're not allowed to do anything", or is it smth like "It's okay if you do nothing", or both?

I also have a similar question about "Helga getur ekkert sagt": is it "Helga is not allowed to say anything" , or "It's okay if Helga says nothing", or both?

Hello, fellow Icelandic learners! I'm looking for a copy of Málfræðibókin mín 3. Hefti. I was able to get my hands on books 1 and 2 but I cannot find number 3. Does any of you can help? A link to purchase it, a PDF, pictures, anything would be appreciated. Thank you!!!