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Definite article

Usage​

In Icelandic, the 👉 definite article🇮🇸 ákveðinn greinir is used to point to something specific. It’s equivalent to the word “the” in English. Normally, the definite article is an ending that we add to a noun:

Hundurinn er sofandi.
Bókin er skemmtileg.
Barnið grætur.

As you can see, the ending isn’t always the same. That’s because the definite article is inflected. It will take on the same gender, number and case as the noun it’s attached to.

In English, there is also an indefinite article, “an” or “a”. Icelandic doesn’t have this, so we just miss it out altogether:

Það er __ köttur í garðinum.
Ég er að baka __ köku fyrir þig.
Ísland er __ skemmtilegt land.

Phew, we found one way Icelandic is easier than English! 😍

With abstract nouns​

Icelandic tends to use the definite article with abstract nouns, where English wouldn’t necessarily have it:

Lífið er ljúft!
Ég geri allt fyrir ástina.

With possessive pronouns​

Most of the time, possessives like minn and þinn require a definite article on the noun:

Er þetta húfan þín?
Þú þarft að tala við yfirmanninn þinn.

For the rules on this, see Possessive pronouns.

Formation​

Nominative singular​

Let’s start with the nominative singular forms of the definite article. If you’ve just learnt about gender, it makes sense to learn these forms first. Adding the article onto a word might even help you remember its gender.

The nominative singular forms are as follows:

Masculine
‑(i)nn
hesturinn, staðurinn, maðurinn, læknirinn, bíllinn, steinninn, laxinn
penninn, krakkinn, herrann
Feminine
‑(i)n
rósin, búðin, laugin, brúin, æfingin, verslunin
kakan, konan, peysan
Neuter
‑(i)ð
landið, skipið, boxið, húsið, beltið, bakaríið, tréð
augað, eyrað

It doesn’t matter what ending the actual noun has:

  • If the noun is masculine, the definite article will be ‑(i)nn;
  • If the noun is feminine, it’s ‑(i)n;
  • And if the noun is neuter, it’s ‑(i)ð.
When to add ‑i

As you may have noticed, the i is in brackets. This is because it’s not always needed: if the noun ends in ‑a, ‑i or ‑u, then we don’t add i.

If the noun ends in any other vowel, including an accented vowel like á, í or ú, then we do add the i, e.g. brúin “the bridge”, bakaríið “the bakery”. There are very few exceptions to this rule, but one of them is the neuter noun tré, which doesn’t get the i: tréð “the tree”.

Note on pronunciation

The masculine and feminine definite articles, ‑inn and ‑in, are pronounced identically. The difference is only in the spelling.

Nominative plural​

If you’re not sure how to make a noun plural, read Number first. The nominative plural forms of the definite article are as follows:

Masculine
‑nir
hestarnir, staðirnir, mennirnir, læknarnir, bílarnir, steinarnir, laxarnir
pennarnir, krakkarnir, herrarnir
Feminine
‑nar
rósirnar, búðirnar, laugarnar, brýrnar, æfingarnar, verslanirnar
kökurnar, konurnar, peysurnar
Neuter
‑(i)n
löndin, skipin, boxin, húsin, beltin, bakaríin, trén
augun, eyrun

As you can see, it doesn’t matter how the noun itself forms its plural (and there are quite a few different plural endings), the article is always the same for each gender.

A couple of notes on pronunciation:

  • The masculine and feminine definite articles cause t-insertion, which isn’t reflected in the spelling. So hestarnir is pronounced as if it’s written hestartnir (🤓 IPA for the nerds: /ˈhɛstartnɪr/);
  • Even though the article makes the word quite a bit longer, the stress is still on the first syllable. The definite article is never stressed, just like most Icelandic students 🙃
Neuter plural

The neuter plural definite article is the same as the feminine singular: ‑(i)n. The rule about whether to add i is the same as before.

Accusative, dative and genitive​

If you’re familiar with case and want to know what the full inflection of the definite article is, here are the forms for the accusative, dative and genitive:

 SingularPlural
Masc.Fem.Neu.Masc.Fem.Neu.
Nom.‑(i)nn‑(i)n‑(i)ð‑nir‑nar‑(i)n
Acc.‑(i)na‑na
Dat.‑num‑(i)nni‑(i)nu‑num
Gen.‑(i)ns‑(i)nnar‑(i)ns‑nna

Some notes on the inflection of the definite article:

  • The masculine singular nominative and accusative are the same;
  • The dative plural is the only form that affects the actual noun ending. Instead of adding getting the expected ‑umnum, we get ‑unum.

The inflection of the definite article in many ways resembles that of adjectives ending in ‑inn.

Let’s see how the full inflection looks for a few nouns in each gender:

💪 Masc.SingularPlural
IndefiniteDefiniteIndefiniteDefinite
Nom.hesturhesturinnhestarhestarnir
Acc.hesthestinnhestahestana
Dat.hestihestinumhestumhestunum
Gen.hestshestsinshestahestanna

If you browse through various words via the tabs above, you’ll notice that the definite form of the noun often has more distinct forms than the indefinite form.

For example, penna could be singular accusative, dative or genitive, or plural accusative or genitive. But each of these forms would be distinct with the definite article: sing. acc. pennann, dat. pennanum, gen. pennans; plu. acc. pennana, gen. pennanna.

Freestanding article​

Usage​

As well as the suffixed definite article, Icelandic has a freestanding definite article: hinn. It’s only used in extremely 🧐 formal language and fixed phrases:

Skipið sigldi út á hið stóra haf.
Hinir tignu gestir heimsóttu forsetann.

It can also be used to make adjectives into nouns:

Aðgerðir hins opinbera eru ekki fullnægjandi.
Ég óska ykkur alls hins besta.

Inflection​

It inflects the same way as the suffixed definite article:

 SingularPlural
MasculineFeminineNeuterMasculineFeminineNeuter
Nom.hinnhinhiðhinirhinarhin
Acc.hinahina
Dat.hinumhinnihinuhinum
Gen.hinshinnarhinshinna
Hið or hitt?

The inflection of the freestanding definite article hinn is almost identical to the more commonly used demonstrative pronoun hinn “the other”. In fact, all the forms are the same except the neuter singular nominative/accusative, which is hið for the definite article and hitt for the pronoun.

How can you tell them apart? The pronoun hinn always requires the suffixed definite article on the noun that follows it, e.g. hitt hvíta húsið. The freestanding article hinn doesn’t require this, as it is the definite article, e.g. hið hvíta hús.