Adjectives in Icelandic are a class of words used to describe, or modify, nouns and pronouns.
When used with a noun (predicatively), the adjective🇮🇸 lýsingarorð comes before it, but when used about the subject of the sentence (as a complement), it comes after vera:
Georg keypti sér flottan svartan jakka. Jakkinn var dýr.
For an introduction to adjective inflection, see Positive.
Icelandic adjectives inflect for all three genders, masculine🇮🇸 karlkyn, feminine🇮🇸 kvenkyn and neuter🇮🇸 hvorugkyn, and both numbers, singular🇮🇸 eintala and plural🇮🇸 fleirtala.
Most adjectives follow a similar pattern:
Singular – Masculine: default form; feminine: remove ending and apply U-shift if applicable; neuter: remove ending and add t.
Plural – Remove ending and add -ir for masculine -ar for the feminine. For the neuter, remove the ending and apply U-shift if applicable (so the same as feminine singular).
These rules apply only to the nominative case, of course, but they are a good starting point. Click through the tabs below to see how different adjectives apply these rules: