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.

Inflection

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.

People or things?

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.

Eitthvað or eitthvert?

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.