Indefinite pronouns
An indefinite pronoun🇮🇸 óákveðið fornafn in Icelandic is used to express the quantity or number of something, generally in vague terms rather than specific terms:
Það eru nokkur glös á borðinu.
Sumum finnst gaman að ganga upp á jökul.
Enginn elskar þig eins mikið og ég.
Indefinite pronouns can either stand on their own or with a noun. Sometimes their meaning changes subtly depending on this.
When used with a noun, an indefinite pronoun will mirror the gender, number and case of the noun. In that sense, indefinite pronouns work a bit like adjectives. However, indefinite pronouns and adjectives have different roles in a sentence, as we’ll see.
A recurring theme with many indefinite pronouns when used on their own (i.e. without a noun), is that:
- When they are masculine, they refer to people;
- When they are neuter, they refer to a thing.
For example, einhver and eitthvað are technically just masculine and neuter forms of the same word. But einhver (m.) used on its own means “somebody”, whereas eitthvað (n.) means “something”.
einhver
Usage
When used by itself, einhver can mean “somebody/something”. Remember, when it’s masculine it means “somebody/someone”, when it’s neuter it means “something”:
Það er einhver í húsinu.
Það er gaman að synda með einhverjum!
Ég þarf að kaupa eitthvað fyrir Jón í afmælisgjöf.
When used with a noun, einhver means “some/any”:
Það er einhver kisa í garðinum.
Hefurðu einhverja hugmynd um hvað hann heitir?
Kauptu bara eitthvert jólakort til að senda þeim.
Ég tók bara einhverjar myndir af brúðkaupinu.
The sense of “some” here is like “some random”, e.g. einhver kisa “some random cat”.
When einhver is used with a noun, we don’t distinguish between the human and non-human meanings by gender. It simply mirrors the gender, number and case of the noun it’s describing.
Inflection
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | einhver | eitthvað/ eitthvert | einhverjir | einhverjar | einhver | |
| Acc. | einhvern | einhverja | einhverja | |||
| Dat. | einhverjum | einhverri | einhverju | einhverjum | ||
| Gen. | einhvers | einhverrar | einhvers | einhverra | ||
Some notes about the inflection:
- The masculine and feminine singular nominative (einhver) are the same. Weird right? 🤨 These two forms are normally very different in other kinds of words, like adjectives;
- The neuter singular nominative and accusative forms have eitt- instead of ein- as the prefix;
- When the ending starts with a vowel, we get j-insertion, e.g. einhverja, einhverju;
- Like adjectives, the neuter plural nominative and accusative is the same as the feminine singular nominative, i.e. einhver;
- Like adjectives, the dative plural (einhverjum) and genitive plural (einhverra) forms are each the same in all genders.
There are two forms in the neuter singular, which is confusing. However, there’s a very simple rule for when you use which form:
- eitthvað is the freestanding form,
- eitthvert is used before a noun.
nokkur
Usage
Singular
Nokkur has slightly different meanings in the singular and plural. In singular, it can mean “anyone/anything” on its own, or “any” when used with a noun:
Er nokkur hérna?
Ertu ekki búinn að segja nokkuð?
Er nokkur lógík í þessu?
When used in the neuter singular and followed by the preposition af, it means “a bit of/a few”:
Mamma er búin að kaupa nokkuð af smákökum.
The neuter singular also has another function, which is really more like an adverb. It means “at all/by any chance”:
Eruðið nokkuð tilbúin að panta?
Geturðu nokkuð opnað gluggann?
The general idea here is that it softens a request, making it more polite.
Inflection
Nokkur has a similar inflection to einhver. In fact, it’s quirky in lots of the same ways:
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | nokkur | nokkuð/ nokkurt | nokkrir | nokkrar | nokkur | |
| Acc. | nokkurn | nokkra | nokkra | |||
| Dat. | nokkrum | nokkurri | nokkru | nokkrum | ||
| Gen. | nokkurs | nokkurrar | nokkurs | nokkurra | ||
Some observations:
- The masculine and feminine singular nominative (nokkur) both end in -ur, which seems very unusual for the feminine. This is in fact because the r is part of the stem of the word, rather than an ending. Leading on to the next point;
- All forms of nokkur keep the r throughout the inflection, except the freestanding form nokkuð;
- Like adjectives, the neuter plural nominative/accusative is the same as the feminine singular nominative, i.e. nokkur;
- Like adjectives, the dative plural (nokkrum) and genitive plural (nokkurra) forms are each the same in all genders;
- In forms where the ending starts with a vowel, the u before the ending is dropped. This is called syncope.
annar
Usage
The basic meaning of annar is “other”:
Eigum við ekki að kaupa aðrar gardínur?
Mér finnst lakkrís viðbjóðslegur, en aðrir elska hann.
When used on its own in the masculine plural, it means “other people”.
In the singular, it can also mean “another/a different”:
Má bjóða þér aðra kökusneið?
Við viljum kaupa annan bíl.
Hún er í öðrum kjól en ég.
With other pronouns
Annar can be used with another pronoun to mean “else”. When used like this, it comes after the other pronoun:
Ég ætla að sitja hjá einhverjum öðrum.
Þurfum við að kaupa eitthvað annað?
Hver annar kann að gera þetta?
As a cardinal number
Confusingly, annar can also mean “second (2nd)”:
Ég fæddist annan júlí.
Inflection
Annar has one of the most irregular inflections of any pronoun in Icelandic. Because of this, at first it can be hard to realise that, for example annan and öðrum, are two forms of the same word.
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | annar | önnur | annað | aðrir | aðrar | önnur |
| Acc. | annan | aðra | aðra | |||
| Dat. | öðrum | annarri | öðru | öðrum | ||
| Gen. | annars | annarrar | annars | annarra | ||
Some comments on the inflection:
- There is an alternation between ðr and nn in the stem of the word. There’s no logical rule to this in modern Icelandic, so it’s best to just learn the forms with ðr by heart;
- The feminine singular nominative and neuter plural nominative/accusative both get U-shift;
- U-shift and the ðr/nn alternation can combine, e.g. in öðrum;
- In forms where the ending starts with a vowel (except annan), the vowel before the ending is dropped. This is called syncope.
Unlike einhver and nokkur, there is just one form in the neuter singular nominative/accusative.
allur
Usage
In the singular, allur means “everything/everyone”:
Það er allt í góðu!
Barnið skilur allt sem þú segir.
Allir eiga bíl á Íslandi.
In the plural, it generally means “all”:
Allir háskólanemendur útskrifast í vor.
Ég vinn alla daga til kl. 18.
Tumi er búinn að éta þær allar.
Sometimes the meaning is more like “every single”, for example ég vinn alla daga.
When used with the definite article, it means “the whole/all the”:
Allur maturinn var vondur.
Öll fjölskyldan kemur saman um jólin.
Hann talaði allan tímann um vinnuna sína.
Allir kennararnir fara í verkfall í næstu viku.
Krakkarnir kláruðu allar smákökurnar.
Ég ætla að henda öllum gömlu fötunum mínum.
Inflection
Allur inflects like the strong form of any old adjective:
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | allur | öll | allt | allir | allar | öll |
| Acc. | allan | alla | alla | |||
| Dat. | öllum | allri | öllu | öllum | ||
| Gen. | alls | allrar | alls | allra | ||
enginn
Usage
Enginn means “none/nothing/no one”:
Enginn er búinn að mæta.
Ég sé ekkert í myrkrinu!
Það er engin súkkulaðikaka eftir.
Þetta breytir engu!
Það var ekkert!
Inflection
The inflection of enginn is fairly regular, with a few quirky forms:
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | enginn | engin | ekkert | engir | engar | engin |
| Acc. | engan | enga | enga | |||
| Dat. | engum | engri | engu | engum | ||
| Gen. | einskis | engrar | einskis | engra | ||
Most of the forms resemble those of an adjective ending in -inn (e.g. hávaxinn), except we lose the n in all forms except the masculine and feminine singular nominative.
Ekkert and einskis are totally wacky forms that you just have to learn.
Why are they like this? Well originally enginn was two words that inflected separately. Over time they became mashed together, producing the variations we see above.
neinn
Usage
Neinn is used with ekki (or another negation word) to mean “not ... any”:
Hann skilur ekki neitt!
Sérðu ekki neinn kaffipakka í hillunni?
Ég vil ekki neitt af þessu.
Inflection
Neinn declines just like the number einn. Coincidence? I think not!
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | neinn | nein | neitt | neinir | neinar | nein |
| Acc. | neina | neina | ||||
| Dat. | neinum | neinni | neinu | neinum | ||
| Gen. | neins | neinnar | neins | neinna | ||
In forms where the regular ending would begin with r, such as feminine dative singular, we get assimilation to nn, giving us neinni rather than *neinri.