icelandic

I'm trying to understand what's going on grammatically with this sentence: "Þetta á eftir að hjálpa okkur mikið." Here is the context in which I found it: Pabbi minn fer inn í herbergi systur minnar. Hann vill tala við hana. Hann fer inn og Júlía horfir á hann. „Ó, halló pabbi. Vantar þig...

I know this is basic stuff, but I just want to clarify for myself what we're really saying to someone with these common expressions, usually translated as "hello" and "goodbye", respectively. At least one dictionary translates the adjective sæll as "happy, blissful; fortunate, blessed", so an...

I came across this sentence, "Lára bíður þangað til Rafn og Sigga eru farin", in Olly Richards Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners [(Teach Yourself) (p. 185). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition]. First, is there anything idiomatically odd about this sentence? As established in other threads...

I'm trying to understand the meaning of the following passage from Snorra Saga, by Þórarinn Eldjárn, located online here: "Hann var goði, það er að segja einn af höfðingjunum. Veldi og embætti goðanna nefndust goðorð. Sturla í Hvammi réð yfir Snorrungagoðorði sem var kennt við afkomendur Snorra...

Is there a difference in meaning between "Ég þarf á hjálp frá þér að halda" and "Ég þarf á hjálp frá þér"? This first sentence appears in Olly Richards' Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners, (p. 214). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition. My question here is really about the use of "að halda"...

In English, the idiom "fight with" is one of those expressions that can actually be its own antonym, depending on the context. For example, "he fights with his sister" might mean either that he fights alongside his sister (for a common cause), but it might also mean that he fights against his...

The following sentences, all of which appear in various places among the stories found in Olly Richards Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners (Teach Yourself, John Murray Press, Kindle Edition) appear to be using either dálítið or svolítið to translate the English word something: "Ég fann...

Hi everyone, I have a question for native speakers of Icelandic: what connotations does the word "innipúki" have? Is the term primarily negative? I'm interested in anything you have to say about it 🙂

I came across this sentence: "Það var hús konu sem býr ein." In Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Icelandic the fun way! (Teach Yourself) (p. 198). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition. Both Google Translate...

The above sentence appeared in the following context: "Sigga og Rafn eru á meðal mannfjöldans. Þau standa nálægt borði og eru að tala. Lára gengur upp að þeim. Á leiðinni lítur Lára í kringum sig. Allir eru mættir – vinir Láru, ættingjar hennar, lögreglan, og sjálfboðaliðar úr Reykjavík...

I would like to check my understanding of this sentence: "Það vantaði meiri mat á einstaka plánetu." From Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners: Read for pleasure at your level, expand your vocabulary and learn Icelandic the fun way! (Teach Yourself) (p. 193). John Murray...

I came across this sentence "Við búum í rauninni ekki yfir tæknigetu" in Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners (Teach Yourself) (p. 177). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition. According to Google Translate, it can be rendered in English as, "We don't really have the technical...

Hi all, I was hoping a native speaker might be able to help in translating this. Does it, as translation sites suggest, mean "far from human"? Also, if you'll indulge me, how would you translate the similar phrase "less than human" to Icelandic?

What does this sentence actually mean? „Ég veit hvað þú hefur gaman af því að borða!“ [From Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners (Teach Yourself) (p. 166). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.] According to Google Translate, it means, "I know what you like to eat!", but...

The two sentences "það voru engin ský" and "þar voru engin ský", can both be rendered in English as "There were no clouds". But are they really equivalent? Or is there a nuance here? My guess is that with "það voru..." were talking about mere existence, which I might render in English as "No...

I have a question about the following sentence: "Áskell höfðingi tjáði sig rólega með látbrögðum." [From, Richards, Olly. Short Stories in Icelandic for Beginners (Teach Yourself) (p. 157). John Murray Press. Kindle Edition.] The problem is that according to the sources I checked, the word...

I came across this sentence in Olly Richards' Short Stories in Icelandic: "Hann snerist um fyrirætlun Áskels höfðingja um næsta leiðangur." (p 146) Apparently, this renders in English as something like, "It was about Chief Áskel's plan for the next expedition." (Google Translate, Microsoft...

I came across this sentence in Olly Richard's Short Stories in Icelandic (p 131). Why isn't it "...sem þurftu að gera" or maybe "...að hann þurfti að gera"? Takk fyrir!

Hi everyone! I need a little help here. I would like to have a tattoo with this quote, but written in futhark. The problem is I dont have anyone who can help me with translation. Google translated this as: "ekki vera því miður vertu betri", but i think thats a really poor translation.

Sæl, Á ensku mætti heyra orðatiltækið “don't say a word” í þess konar samhengi: --------------------------- Maður 1: Hei, mant þú eftir að þú talaðir um hve þér finnst fersk mjólk bragðgóð? Maður 2: Já ... Maður 1: Sko vinurinn minn Snævar sem er bóndi hefur óvenjulegt stór hjörð þetta ár...

Sæl, Hvor setningin væri eðlilegri? Hver er munurinn á þeim? 1) Hann segir að hún sé veik. 2) Hann segir hana (vera- er þetta orð ónauðsynlegt?) veika. Ég er búinn að velta þessari spurningu fyrir mér í langan tíma en nennti ekki að spyrja. Talk fyrir ábendingarnar.

I hope this isn't already somewhere in the threads, I've been searching for a while... but I would like to find a good book about icelandic verbs and conjugation. One like the Bescherelle series. It would be ok in Icelandic , English or French, even Spanish , German or Danish... I'm desperate...

Hello, I know that in Icelandic "annars" means "otherwise" but I was wondering if this sentence "annað" could mean the same: Annað hefði verið heimskulegt. Otherwise it would have been stupid. Or did I completely misunderstand the sentence? Thank you!! Louis

Hello everyone, I came across what looks like an idiom in Icelandic in a novel but I can't understand what it should mean. This is the whole sentence: Nú á að svæla tófuna úr greninu. I took a stab, but I'm waiting to hear from the native speakers: "And now she had to lure the fox out of the...

Hello. I'd like to know if the construction dummy subject + að vera búinn að can be translated using the passive voice. "Er (það) búið að styrkja hann?" = "Has he been strengthened?"

Is this a set phrase and how can it be translated? That's the whole sentence: "Nú hafðir þú þat ráðit, Þorsteinn, er helzt lá til, ok mundi eigi hlýtt hafa ella." So far I came up with "Now you have ... , Thorstein, ... ,and it would not have been proper otherwise.” Can you help me fill the gaps?

borða this means to eat I couldn't find an etymology, is it related to the word borð 'table'?

Hello everyone, i want to gift to my beloved a ring with the word "promise" engraved in it. It will be a ring crafted from an Icelandic coin. I want to give it to him on his graduation day, because it'll be our "pinky promise", that we will one day go to Iceland :) We want to live there but it's...

Hello I know that the official name of Iceland in English is the Republic of Iceland, but is the word "republic" a part of the official name of Iceland? I would appreciate if someone could give me the name in Icelandic with a reference to a Government site.

Have you noticed that the usual words for 'boy' and 'girl' are completely different in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic (I think) and German? Whereas the words for 'man' and 'woman' show much more similarity between the languages, as do the words for various everyday things such as 'house'...

".. því hefi ek nú látit gera knörru tvá í Líðum á Vestfold," því at hans ríki stóð allt til Dofrafjalls ok Líðandisness. Svona segir Ragnarr i Thaetti af Ragnars sonum. Eg er ad reyna ad thyda thad a Eistnesku, en nota stadarnöfn sem eru notud a stadnum, til daemis Lundunarborg - London. Svo...

Halló! I translated A tree doesn’t fall at the first blow into Eigi fellr tré við fyrsta högg, and found various references online, including a song. But I also found a variant translation, Eigi fellr tré við it fyrsta högg, which adds it ([...] við it fyrsta [...]). It seems strange to me but...

Sæl, Í nútímaensku (í talmálinu) er orðatiltækið "Right?" notað í jákvæðum svörum, til þess að 1) segjast vera einhverjum sammála (sérstaklega þegar um er að ræða hluttekningu, sameiginlega reynslu, o.s.frv.): Maður A: Á þessum flugvelli eru flugin alltaf seinkuð! Maður B: Right? 2) svara í...

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Good morning everyone Can you help please? I'm working through the University of Iceland online course and am at Icelandic Online 2, Bálkur#5 Þráður#2 Síða#1 (5) This is the exercise, which is comprehension and writing the opposite of what's in bold but only using the specific words from the...

Hello, I’ve been struggling to find solid reference for what one would title an epilogue if it were untitled and just “Epilogue”. There are not many good resources for translated ebooks that I have found, unless the epilogue is titled (19 árum síðat in Harry Potter og dauðadjásnin). I’ve only...

Hello, with a couple of friends, we're trying to establish a list of expressions that name in respective linguistic communities the current security hygienic "dispositifs". It's pretty evident that the use is rather arbitrary and "improper" from the point of view of the internal sens of the...

Sæl, Þið vitið víst hvað enska orðatiltækið "just for that ..." þýðir, en samt hef ég búið nokkrar setningar til: Vinur 1: Ég heyrði að hann Arnkell er að reyna að laða viðskiptavini þína, með því að bjóða fimm aura afslátt af stjörnuskrúfum í járnvöruversluninni sinni. Vinur 2: Hvað!! Ég...

Good evening, I have been using the Lexicool Icelandic Lexibar for special characters in Ubuntu for several years. It no longer works in Ubuntu 18.04.3 however and I would like to know if there are any linux users with the same problem. (Lexibar, pour caractères spéciaux clavier islandais)...

Hello, I just came back from iceland where I bought a T-shirt with the phrase below, but I forgot the translation. Someone know the translation or meaning, in English or French? "eg skil þig mer er bara alveg sama" Thank

I'm stuck! Can anyone help me with this word please? "allvegþéldhús". I use bilingual and uni-lingual dictionaries and have tried decomposing the word every which way, without success. It comes in the first verse of the song 'Yfirborð': "Óstillt fasið, kennt við yfirborð í gruggugt glasið við...

Orðatiltækið "That so" er (upprúnalega) stytting af "Is that so?", og er notað í a.m.k. tvenns konar samhengjum: 1) Strákur: Pabbi, við hurðina var maður frá orkufyrirtækinu – hann sagði að hann verður að slökkva raforkuna okkar ef þú gefur mér ekki fimm ausa af sukkulaðirjómaís í hádegismat...

In the chorus to the song mentioned in the thread title there is a lyric which goes: En á föstudögum trúlofast hún nóttinni I can't find trúlofast in the dictionary and I don't know what it might mean. My best guess of a translation of this sentence is: But come Friday she is engaged to the...

Hello guys, I have come across this sentence but I don't understand the use and the meaning of the phrase mundi takmarkað. I know that mundi is the subjunctive but why is it used before the supine? And why is it here? Hún mundi takmarkað eftir að hafa skriðið upp í rúm seinna um kvöldið. She...

Greetings, I'm trying to understand the English translation of this sentence from an Icelandic murder mystery. The text is supposed to have been written in a diary during WWI: "Heyskapur varð afar slæmur og illa hirt og gat ég hirt inn 24 vikum af sumri." This is the English translation I...

Á ensku getur orðið "buddy" gegnt (a.m.k.) tveimur hlutverkum: 1) talmálslegt samheiti á "vinur": Um helgina fer ég á kafbátaferð í Suður-Kyrrahafinu með buddy minn. 2) notað til að ávarpa einhvern sem er *ekki* vinur þess sem talar (oft ókunnugur honum), sem talandinn vil friða vegna hættu...

Hi everyone, The choir I'm singing in is currently rehearsing "Aldasöngur" composed by Jón Nordal. Although we spend a lot of time figuring out and practising the pronunciation, it would help immensely if we had a spoken version from a native speaker. Is there an Icelandic native speaker here...

Hej alle sammen I'm learning Danish and from my experience listening to Icelanders talking, I catch about every ten words, but in written form a bit more. But it seems to me that the reason I can't understand more is because of the lack of foreign loan words from French and so on. (i.e. tálsýn...

Sæl, Á ensku heyrist stundum “How to put this?” þegar um er að ræða eitthvað sem er mjög auðvelt að skýra, en sem finnst (að hyggju þess sem talar) vera of viðkvæmt og/eða vandræðalegt til að segja beint. T.d.: Fljótasti kappakstursökumaðurinn sem ég hef alltaf séð var eflaust hann Sævar...

Sæl, Í nútímaensku er setningin "You don't seem to understand" stundum notuð til að gefa nokkurs konar hótun í skyn. T.d.: Sölumaður: Afsakaðu, hægt er ekki að gefa þér áttatíu prósent afslátt. Kúnni: Gleymdi að segja: ég er elsti sonur höfuðhundafangarans í þessari borg. Sölumaður: Um...