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- Icelandic from Zero: Lesson #6
Icelandic from Zero: Lesson #6
Previous lesson: Lesson #5, Saying Hello
Older lessons :Lesson #1, The Alphabet, Lesson #2, Personal pronouns, Lesson #3, To be, Lesson #4, Basic nouns and articles
Some question words
Hvað:What (hear)
Hvar:Where (hear)
Hver: Who (hear)
Did you hear something weird while listening to the audio? In Icelandic, the combonation 'hv' make the 'kv' sound. Just keep that in mind, it will make you sound more...native!
When asking a question in Icelandic, we always place the verb before the subject noun or pronoun. You do this in English too. Let's practice using að vera.
Hvar er ég?=Where am I?
Hvað er það?=What is it?
Er hann Eiður?=Is he Eiður? (Icelandic boy name)
Hvar er konan?=Where is the woman?
You see? Pretty similar. In lesson 3, we learned that 'you are' was Þú ert. Therefore, you'd think that this would be an ok sentence:
Hvar ert þú=Where are you?
Well, it is (kinda/technically). In questions, we almost always combine verbs and Þú . This invloves dropping the Þ if the verb ends with a 't' or changing it to ðu otherwise. It loses the accent in both cases. So, with the verb "to be" conjugated into the second person as ert we get ertu! It is far more common to hear the following sentences:
Hvar ertu?=Where are you?
Hver ertu?=Who are you?
Hvað ertu?=What are you?
Ertu Eiður?=Are you Eiður?
Ertu maður?=Are you a man; a human? (Oooh, that one gives me chills)
You can respond to basic yes or no questions using either:
Já:Yes (hear)
Nei: No (hear)
Ertu Eiður?=Are you Eiður?
Nei, ég er ekki (Eiður)=No, I am not (Eiður)
Já, ég er (Eiður)=Yes, I am (Eiður)
If you have any comments or questions, please let me know!
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