Icelandic from Zero: Lesson #6

[Freyja2112]

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)

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If you have any comments or questions, please let me know!

Memrise course created by @Woof.: click here

I am still in the process of creating a "repository post" as suggested by @OmegaGmaster.

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Bonus song: Click here

[Woof.]

Thank you so much Freyja! I've learnt so much Icelandic from these lessons! :)

[Everdella]

Thank you :)

[MissSpells]

Beautiful song! I don’t know if is the language or the singer’s beautiful voice or the combination of the two, but it sounds very ethereal and otherwordly to me.

[Freyja2112]

I know! It leaves the same impression on me...

[Njordisk]

Já, ég er maður - don't worry!
Another great lesson, with another great song. Love it

[calynca]

The alphabet lesson together with this one really makes me notice how bad my pronunciation of English is... E.g. I was pronouncing "father" all wrong... :/
So yay, I'm learning two languages here!

[calynca]

"So, with the verb "to be" conjugated into the third person as ert we get ertu!"
Did you maybe mean to say second person?

[Freyja2112]

Yes, so sorry! A simple typo, thanl you very much for catching it.

[Njordisk]

Freyja, will a new lesson be posted any time soon? :)