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Subjunctive

The subjunctive🇮🇸 viðtengingarháttur is a special form of verbs in Icelandic used to express:

  • 🙏 Wishes and desires
  • 😕 Doubt or uncertainty
  • 💭 An imaginary or unrealised situation
  • 👄 Second-hand information or hearsay
  • ☺️ Politeness

Every verb has two subjunctive forms:

  • “Present” (sometimes called subjunctive I)
  • “Past” (sometimes called subjunctive II)

The terms “present” and “past” are in inverted commas because when using the subjunctive, there isn’t always a clear definition between past and present.

After all, it’s often used to talk about a hypothetical situation, so something that hasn’t happened yet and might not happen at all. The subjunctive itself is not a tense, it’s what us grammar nerds call a mood🇮🇸 háttur.

Usage​

Wishes and desires​

The present subjunctive can be used to express wishes or desires:

Gangi þér vel!
Lengi lifi kóngurinn!
Hvíli hún í friði.
Verði þér að góðu!

Notice the word order here: the verb comes before the subject. These kinds of expressions can often be translated with “may”, e.g. hvíli hún í friði “may she rest in peace”.

You’ll notice some common everyday phrases in the examples above. You might already have been using the subjunctive without realising it!

info

Ever wondered why we say in English “long live the king”? Shouldn’t it be “long lives the king”? This is actually an old subjunctive form that’s become fossilised. In Icelandic, the subjunctive is still alive!

ætli​

In the present subjunctive, the common verb ætla takes on a slightly different meaning:

Ætli það ekki?
Hvað ætli klukkan sé?
Ætli hann sé nýi forsetinn!
Ætli það snjói ekki í dag?

It’s hard to give an exact translation, but it’s something like “I suppose...” or in a question “Do you reckon...?”. This is quite different from the normal use of ætla as a way of talking about future plans.

The second example above means “What do you suppose the time is?”. You can see that the second verb here, sé (from vera) is also in the present subjunctive.

Politeness​

The past subjunctive can be used to make a request more polite:

Mætti ég fá lán af penna hjá þér?
Gætirðu sagt mér hvað klukkan er?
Vildir þú vera svo væn að rétta mér saltið?
Mér þætti vænt um að fá peninginn í dag.
Ég yrði mjög þakklátur fyrir upplýsingarnar.
Ég þyrfti á hjálpinni að halda.

If the lack of a word for “please” in Icelandic irks you, this can be a good workaround!

This use of the subjunctive is related to its core function of expressing hypothetical situations. If a request is hypothetical, it seems less demanding and makes it easier for the other person to say no!

Slight possibilities​

The past subjunctive can be used to talk about slight possibilities:

Við ættum að tala við hann.
Það væri frábært ef þú gætir komið fyrir hádegi.
Það yrði betra að fá þetta strax.

These kinds of sentences often use “ought”, “might”, “should” or “could” in English. As you can see from the second and third examples above, this can be used as a way of making requests more indirectly.

Það væri frábært ef þú gætir komið fyrir hádegi translates as “it would be great if you could come before lunchtime”. Isn’t this just a request disguised as a slighty passive-aggressive statement? 🕵️

In subordinate clauses​

The subjunctive is often used in subordinate clauses. Whether or not the subjunctive is actually required depends on the meaning of the verb that introduces the subordinate clause.

With verbs expressing a wish, belief, fear, suspicion or hope​

In a subordinate clause starting with að, after a verb that expresses some kind of hypothetical situation, the subjunctive is often used:

Mamma vonar að pabbi komi aftur heim.
Ég held að það eigi að rigna í kvöld.
Krakkarnir óskuðu að þeir gætu leikið sér úti.
Við bjuggumst við því að hópurinn yrði mættur fyrir kl. 10.
Mér skilst að Gunnar sé að flytja til Noregs.
⚫︎ Verb requiring the subjunctive

What all these verbs that require the subjunctive have in common is that they all imply a situation that hasn’t actually happened or might not happen. This might be because you’re expressing a wish, belief, fear, suspicion or hope. It doesn’t mean that the situation is going to actually come true though.

To give you an idea, here are some examples of verbs in each category that require the subjunctive:

CategoryExamples
Wish/desireóska, vilja
Beliefhalda, hugsa, ímynda sér, telja, trúa
Fear/doubt/suspicionefast um, gruna, óttast
Hope/expectationáætla, búast við, vona, vænta

Indirect speech​

One major use of the subjunctive is in sentences with reported speech:

Gunna segir að hún geti þetta.
Pabbi sagði mér að hann væri kominn heim.
Hún segir að þú hafir keypt í matinn.

This basically means that every time you use segja followed by a subordinate clause, then you have to use the subjunctive. This is the main reason that Icelandic news headlines are in the subjunctive, because they are often based on second-hand information (quotes from somebody else), rather than first-hand investigation.

There are other verbs that can also be used to express indirect speech too, such as færa rök fyrir “argue”, halda fram “maintain” and fullyrða “claim, assert”.

Indirect questions​

When reporting on questions, the subjunctive is required:

Ég spyr hvenær hann verði kominn heim.
Þú spurðir mig hvort ég vildi meiri köku.
Þjóðskrá spyr hvar maður eigi heima.
Það er spurning hvert þau séu farin.

This means most subordinate clauses introduced by spyrja require the subjunctive.

After certain conjunctions​

Expressing purpose or justification​

Certain conjunctions, such as svo að “so that” or til þess að “in order to”, are used to introduce a purpose or justification. When used like this, they require the subjunctive:

Ég ætla að fylla á tankinn í dag svo ég þurfi ekki að gera það á morgun.
Afi lánaði mér pening til þess að ég gæti keypt hús.

Svo

When svo simply means “then”, rather than “so that”, it doesn’t require the subjunctive:

Ég keypti brauð og svo fór ég heim.

You can also tell that the meaning is different here because svo requires inversion of verb and subject (svo fór ég and not svo ég fór). This is because svo is acting as an adverb here, rather than a conjunction.

þótt and þó að​

The conjunctions þótt and þó að both mean “even though, even if” and require the subjunctive:

Þótt ég segði honum að kaupa bókina þá gerði hann það ekki.
Jafnvel þótt hún bjóði mér í mat ætla ég ekki að kaupa mér nýja skó.

eins og or sem​

The conjunctions eins og and sem can be used in the meaning “as if” to introduce an imaginary situation, in which case the subjunctive is required:

Það er eins og hann skilji ekki ensku.
Hún lætur eins og hún sjái okkur ekki.
Hann fór hratt sem fugl flygi.

nema​

When nema means “unless”, it requires the subjunctive:

Hún kemur ekki nema ég borgi fyrir.
Þú fórst aldrei út nema þér væri boðið.

After certain adjectives​

Certain adjectives that express a wish, belief, fear, suspicion, hope or obligation require the subjunctive:

Ég er hræddur um að það komi stormur.
Það er æskilegt að þú borgir í krónum.
Mikilvægt er að allir kennarar lesi skjalið.

Formation​

Present​

For all verbs except vera, the present subjunctive is formed in the same way. In fact, its easier than the regular (indicative) forms!

Subjunctive
Singular1stég‑italibyrji
2ndþú‑irtalirbyrjir
3rdhann
hún
hán
það		‑italibyrji
Plural1stvið‑umtölumbyrjum
2ndþið‑iðtaliðbyrjið
3rdþeir
þær
þau		‑italibyrji

vera​

Because vera is the most commonly used verb in Icelandic, it gets away with being totally irregular in the subjunctive:

Singular1stégséPluralviðséum
2ndþúsértþiðséuð
3rdhann
hún
hán
það		séþeir
þær
þau		séu
Sjá or vera?

Don’t get the subjunctive forms of vera mixed up with the indicative forms of sjá “to see”. Ég sé can mean “I see” or “I am”.

Use clues from the context, such as whether there’s anything earlier in the sentence that would trigger the subjunctive, to figure out which verb you have in front of you.

Past​

Group 1 and 2 weak verbs​

These are the easiest to form in the subjunctive. In fact, group 1 and 2 weak verbs are exactly the same in the subjunctive as they are in the indicative! For the conjugation of these, see Past.

Group 3 weak verbs​

To form the past subjunctive of group 3 weak verbs:

  • Find the 3rd person singular past tense:
        telja – tel – taldi – töldum – talið
  • Apply I-shift to the stem (✨ Hint: This is the same vowel as in the infinitive):
        tald- → teld-
  • Apply the relevant past tense ending:
    Singular1stégteldiPluralviðteldum
    2ndþúteldirþiðtelduð
    3rdhann
    hún
    hán
    það    		teldiþeir
    þær
    þau    		teldu
tip

The past tense endings as the same as in the indicative. In fact, the only difference between the subjunctive and the indicative here is the stem vowel.

Understanding group 3 weak verbs

Why is the explanation for this so complicated? Surely it’d just be easier to remember that you use the same vowel in the subjunctive as in the infinitive and be done with it?

Well, you can learn it that way. But getting into this habit will help you with forming the past subjunctive of strong verbs. Keep scrolling if you dare.

Let’s look at some more examples:

Subjunctive
Singular1stég‑ispyrðiflyttisegði
2ndþú‑irspyrðirflyttirsegðir
3rdhann
hún
hán
það		‑ispyrðiflyttisegði
Plural1stvið‑umspyrðumflyttumsegðum
2ndþið‑uðspyrðuðflyttuðsegðuð
3rdþeir
þær
þau		‑uspyrðuflyttusegðu

Segja is included here as it behaves like a group 3 weak verb in the past tense (but like a group 2 verb in the present tense).

Strong verbs​

Now’s the time to get your I-shift game on. To form the past subjunctive of strong verbs, we follow a similar process to group 3 weak verbs:

  • Find the 3rd person plural past tense:
        lesa – les – las – lásum – lesið
  • Apply I-shift to the stem:
        lás- → læs-
  • Apply the relevant past tense ending:
    Singular1stéglæsiPluralviðlæsum
    2ndþúlæsirþiðlæsuð
    3rdhann
    hún
    hán
    það    		læsiþeir
    þær
    þau    		læsu