Dative

Function

Typical function

The dative case🇮🇸 þágufall is typically used to indicate the “recipient” of an action. The recipient can be the person or thing receiving an object or action. Another term for this is the indirect object. Let’s look at some examples:

Ég ætla að gefa honum bók í jólagjöf.
Kennarinn segir krökkunum sögu.

All the words in bold are in the dative.

In the first example, honum “him” is in the dative, because he is the one receiving the bók (accusative) as a gift.

Pro explanation

The dative normally indicates the indirect object of a verb.

Other uses

Prepositions

Prepositions can take the dative case:

Ég er á kaffihúsi.
Við töluðum saman í vinnunni.
Elín fór með vinum sínum á bar.

The prepositions á “on”, í “in”, undir “under” and yfir “over” can take either the accusative or the dative depending on whether there is motion or lack of motion in a sentence. For an explanation of this, see á, í, undir, yfir.

Whilst the prepositions fyrir “for, before, in front of”, með “with” and við “at, next to” can take either accusative or dative too, the rules for them aren’t to do with motion or lack of motion. See fyrir, með and við respectively for explanations.

Finally, there are prepositions like af, frá and úr that always take the dative. See a list of prepositions that govern the dative.

Impersonal verbs

Normally the subject of a sentence is in the nominative. But certain verbs require their subject to be in a different case, and most often that’s the dative (although it can sometimes be the accusative):

Mér finnst gaman að hjóla.
Hvernig líður þér?
Honum kólnaði mikið úti í snjónum.

See a list of verbs with a dative subject.

Verbs that have a dative direct object

Although the dative normally indicates the indirect object of a verb, a lot of verbs take a direct object in the dative:

María hjálpar mér oft með heimavinnuna.
Við eyddum tveimur vikum á Spáni.
Hann henti boltanum út um gluggann.

When you learn a verb, it makes sense to learn the case it governs as well as the group it belongs to.

Formation

Singular

Masculine

To form the dative singular of masculine nouns, follow the rules below.

💪 Strong	Remove the ending and add ‑i hest|ur → hesti stein|n → steini spegil|l → spegli Remove the ending stað|ur → stað lækni|r → lækni bíl|l → bíl
🥀 Weak	Change ‑i → ‑a krakki → krakka lampi → lampa penni → penna

When to add -i

Strong masculine nouns can be a bit of a pain. The rules for when to add -i are complex, so get ready 😳

Most masculine nouns do get -i in the dative, including:

• Most nouns that end in -ur and form their nominative plural with -ar:
  fiskur → fiski, hestur → hesti, hundur → hundi
  (But: skápur → skáp, strákur → strák/stráki)
• Nouns that end in -nn:
  steinn → steini, Spánn → Spáni, þjónn → þjóni
  Nouns ending in -inn or -unn get syncope: arinn → arni, himinn → himni, morgunn → morgni
• Multi-syllable nouns that end in -all, -ill or -ull:
  gaffall → gaffli, kapall → kapli, spegill → spegli, jökull → jökli
• Native nouns that end in -ar:
  hamar → hamri, humar → humri, jaðar → jaðri
• Native nouns with no removable ending:
  fugl → fugli, foss → fossi, lax → laxi

A large number of strong masculine nouns do not get -i in the dative. These include:

• Many nouns that end in -ur and form their nominative plural with -ir:
  dalur → dal, drengur → dreng, hvalur → hval, staður → stað
  (But: vinur → vini)
• Single-syllable nouns that end in -ll:
  bíll → bíl, stíll → stíl
• Nouns that end in -ir:
  læknir → lækni, reiknir → reikni
• Loanwords with no removable ending:
  ananas → ananas, bambus → bambus, bar → bar, pipar → pipar, póker → póker, prófessor → prófessor

There are exceptions to all of these broad rules. For example, hæll “heel” can be hæl or hæli in the dative.

Sound changes (I-shift and vowel breaking)

Some strong masculine nouns undergo a set of sound changes in the dative singular (the same vowel change occurs in the nominative and accusative plural too).

Historically these sound changes have different origins, but for modern purposes we can learn them as a set:

Vowel change	Nominative	Dative
a → e	dagur	degi
á → æ	háttur þráður þáttur With stem r: blástur	hætti þræði þætti blæstri
e → a	ketill Egill	katli Agli
jö → i	björn fjörður	birni firði
ö → e	ávöxtur köttur völlur vörður	ávexti ketti velli verði

For more information, see I-shift.

Feminine

To form the dative singular of feminine nouns, follow the rules below.

💪 Strong	No change rós → rós mjólk → mjólk verslun → verslun But: æfing → æfingu
🥀 Weak	Change ‑a → ‑u  (+U‑shift) kona → konu kaka → ⚠️ köku

Strong feminine nouns are dead easy in the dative, because they’re exactly the same as the nominative and accusative! The only exceptions are:

• Nouns that end in -ing, which get a final -u in the dative (and accusative).
• Certain female names, such as Dagný og Sigríður, which become Dagnýju and Sigríði in the dative (and accusative). For more examples, see Personal names.

For weak feminine nouns, change the final -a to -u.

A really important point: this final -u causes U-shift where applicable, meaning that an a in the stem changes to ö or u. For an explanation of this process, see U-shift.

Neuter

To form the dative of singular neuter nouns, follow the rules below.

💪 Strong	Add ‑i land → landi skip → skipi veski → veski But: tré → tré
🥀 Weak	No change auga → auga eyra → eyra

The vast majority of strong neuter nouns get -i in the dative singular. Of course, if the noun already ends in -i, then we don’t add another one (Icelandic doesn’t really do double vowels).

A handful of nouns that end in -é don’t get the dative -i. These are:

• fé
• hné
• tré

Others, such as hlé and vé, do get the dative ending, e.g. hléi, véi.

As in the accusative, weak nouns don’t change. So weak neuter nouns are the same in the nominative, accusative, dative and (sneak peek!) genitive.

Plural

The dative plural ending, -um, is one of the most recognisable in Icelandic, as it’s the same for weak and strong nouns in all genders.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Strong	hestum stöðum steinum bílum speglum læknum	rósum bókum verslunum æfingum skeljum stöðvum	löndum skipum veskjum
Weak	krökkum lömpum pennum	konum kökum	augum hjörtum

As you can see, -um causes U-shift where possible, e.g. staðir → stöðum.

j-insertion

In neuter nouns ending in -i in the nominative, a j is inserted before the -um ending, e.g veski → veskjum, tæki → tækjum. This is to preserve the palatised pronunciation of <k> (transcribed as /c/).

A j is also inserted before the -um ending in strong feminine nouns ending in -l, e.g. skel → skeljum.

Exceptions

The dative plural is one of the most regular noun forms. That said, it is Icelandic we’re dealing with here. So there are some exceptions.

Masculine		Feminine		Neuter
Nom.	Dat.	Nom.	Dat.	Nom.	Dat.
skór	skóm	ár gjár spár	ám gjám spám	tré hné	trjám hnjám
		könguló	köngulóm
		brýr kýr	brúm kúm

The largest group here is feminine nouns ending in á, ó or ú.

The masculine and neuter exceptions don’t fit into any group and just need to be learnt by heart 🤷🏻‍♂️