Tricky consonants
The Icelandic language has some tricky consonants that can cause learners some trouble. These all have more than one pronunciation depending on the context. Choose a consonant below to get an explanation:
Tricky consonants
f
The letter f can have quite a few different pronunciations in Icelandic depending on the context.
| f | [f] at the start of a word or when written <ff>: fela, gaffall |
|---|---|
| [v] between vowels, before ð/g/r or at the end of a word: lofa, sofa, grafa, hafði, hafrar, raf | |
| [p] before l/n: Keflavík, efni | |
| [m] before nd: hefnd, nefnd | |
| [m̥] (devoiced “m”) before nt: nefnt | |
| [ ] (dropped altogether) between á/ó/ú and vowel: lófi, húfa |
Try your f’s out with this tongue-twister: 👅 Í fallegu stofunni var stefnt á hefnd.
g
The letter g can be quite troublesome. The pronunciation varies a lot depending on the context and sometimes it’s not pronounced at all!
| g | [k] at start of word or between vowel and l/n: glápa, gala, hagl, logn |
|---|---|
| [c] (palatised “k”) at start of word before e, i/y, í/ý, ei/ey, æ or when written gj: gera, giftur, geispa, gæs, gjafir, gjörðu | |
| [ɣ] after vowel and before a/u/ð/r or at end of word: fluga, vegur, lægð, sigra, lag | |
| [x] (the same sound as Scots “loch”) after vowel and before t/s: dragt, lags | |
| [j] between vowel and i/j: lygi, fægiskófla, segja | |
| [ ] (dropped altogether) between á/ó/ú and a/u: plága, plógur, fljúga |
Get your g game on with this tongue-twister: 👅 Glaða flugan flýgur hægt og óþægilega.
h
The letter h isn’t always pronounced as a separate sound. Often, it’s used to indicate a different pronunciation of the consonant that follows it.
| h | [k] when written <hv>: hvað, hvalur, Hveragerði |
|---|---|
| [ç] when written <hj>: hjarta, hjálpa, hjón, Hjörtur | |
| [ ] (dropped altogether) before devoiced consonants, i.e. <hl, hn, hr>: hlynur, hnerra, hræðilegur | |
| [h] everywhere else: haka, herja, hóll |
k
Like in English, the k sound varies depending on what comes after it.
| k | [k] between vowels or at the end of a word: raka, leikur, eik, lok |
|---|---|
| [kʰ] (aspirated “k”, see above) at the start of a word: kafa, kaupa, köttur | |
| [cʰ] at the start of a word before e, i/y, í/ý, æ, ei/ey or when written kj: keppni, keyra, kæra, kjaftur | |
| [x] before t/s or in <x> lykt, október, bakstur, lax |
p
There are a few variants of how the letter p is pronounced in Icelandic.
| p | [p] between vowels or at the end of a word: api, glápa, krap, ösp |
|---|---|
| [pʰ] (aspirated “p”, see above) at the start of a word: pabbi, plógur, poki | |
| [f] before t/s: skipta, skipstjóri |
Other consonants
Most of the other consonants in Icelandic are relatively straightforward, but it’s worth just pointing a few things out about some of them:
- In Icelandic, s is never voiced. This means it’s never pronounced /z/, even in between vowels. The Icelandic s is quite sharp and whistly (IPA: [s̺]), similar to the s sound in Spain;
- The Icelandic v sound is not a pure /v/ like in English, sitting somewhere between the /v/ and /w/ sounds of English (IPA: [ʋ]). This is why Icelanders sometimes mix these two sounds up when speaking English, and say things like “this is a wery nice willage”.