Past tense

Usage

As the name suggests, the ⬅️ past tense in Icelandic is used to talk about something that happened in the past. For example:

Ég keyrði í vinnu í morgun.
Doug flutti til Íslands fyrir tuttugu árum.
Fannstu lyklana þína?

The past tense can be used to talk about something that has happened, no matter if that was 3 seconds ago or 20 million years ago.

Unlike the present tense, which can be used to talk about recurring events or the future, the past tense is decidedly for things that happened in the past.

Formation

Weak verbs

Each of the three groups of weak verbs🇮🇸 veik sögn forms its past tense differently, although they all share the common feature of adding an ending containing a 🦷 dental consonant (ð, d or t).

Group 1

Group 1 verbs always have a vowel (a or u) before the ending:

	Person		að teikna	að byrja	að tala
Singular	1st	ég	teiknaði	byrjaði	talaði
	2nd	þú	teiknaðir	byrjaðir	talaðir
	3rd	hann hún hán það	teiknaði	byrjaði	talaði
Plural	1st	við	teiknuðum	byrjuðum	töluðum
	2nd	þið	teiknuðuð	byrjuðuð	töluðuð
	3rd	þeir þær þau	teiknuðu	byrjuðu	töluðu

U-shift

In the plural forms (við töluðum, þið töluðuð, þau töluðu), there is the possibility of a U-shift caused by the ‑u‑ in each ending. See U-shift for rules.

Group 2

The past tense of group 2 verbs is formed by adding an ending to the stem containing a dental consonant (ð, d or t, see Dental suffixes below). There’s no vowel between the stem and the ending:

	Person		að stara	að gleyma	að benda
Singular	1st	ég	starði	gleymdi	benti
	2nd	þú	starðir	gleymdir	bentir
	3rd	hann hún hán það	starði	gleymdi	benti
Plural	1st	við	störðum	gleymdum	bentum
	2nd	þið	störðuð	gleymduð	bentuð
	3rd	þeir þær þau	störðu	gleymdu	bentu

U-shift

In the plural forms (við störðum, þið störðuð, þau störðu), there is the possibility of a U-shift caused by the ‑u‑ in each ending. See U-shift for rules.

Group 3

The past tense of group 3 verbs is formed by:

• Adding an ending to the stem containing a dental consonant (ð, d or t, see Dental suffixes below).
• Applying the I-shift to the stem vowel (e → a, y → u, ý → ú).

There’s no vowel between the stem and the ending:

	Person		að spyrja	að semja	að flytja
Singular	1st	ég	spurði	samdi	flutti
	2nd	þú	spurðir	samdir	fluttir
	3rd	hann hún hán það	spurði	samdi	flutti
Plural	1st	við	spurðum	sömdum	fluttum
	2nd	þið	spurðuð	sömduð	fluttuð
	3rd	þeir þær þau	spurðu	sömdu	fluttu

U-shift

In the plural forms (við sömdum, þið sömduð, þau sömdu), there is also the possibility of a U-shift after the I-shift caused by the ‑u‑ in each ending. See U-shift for rules.

Dental suffixes

The past tense ending of group 2 and 3 verbs can contain one of three 🦷 dental consonants – ð, d or t – determined by the sound that comes directly before:

Stem ending	Dental suffix		Group 2	Group 3
Vowel or f, g, r	+	ð	spáði leyfði fleygði lærði	flúði krufði þagði spurði
l, m, n		d	fældi gleymdi rændi	duldi samdi hrundi
ð		dd	gæddi meiddi	gladdi
k, p, t, s		t	rækti gleypti breytti læsti	lukti lapti flutti þusti
Consonant + ð, d, t		t	fullyrti benti rölti	—

Strong verbs

Icelandic strong verbs🇮🇸 sterk sögn form their past tense using set of vowel changes. Strong verbs can be divided into seven groups or series by the set of vowel changes they undergo in the past tense.

With strong verbs, it’s a good idea to memorise their 🧩 principal parts🇮🇸 kennimyndir. This set of five forms will help you determine any possible form of the verb, and consists of:

1. the infinitive🇮🇸 nafnháttur,
2. the present tense🇮🇸 nútíð first person🇮🇸 fyrsta persóna singular🇮🇸 eintala,
3. the past tense🇮🇸 þátíð first person🇮🇸 fyrsta persóna singular🇮🇸 eintala,
4. the past tense🇮🇸 þátíð first person🇮🇸 fyrsta persóna plural🇮🇸 fleirtala, and
5. the past participle🇮🇸 lýsingarháttur þátíðar.

Here are the principal parts of seven strong verbs, one from each group:

Group	Infinitive	1st p. pres. sing.	1st p. past sing.	1st p. past plu.	Past participle
1	bíta	bít	beit	bitum	bitið
2	sjóða	sýð	sauð	suðum	soðið
3	detta	dett	datt	duttum	dottið
4	stela	stel	stal	stálum	stolið
5	sitja	sit	sat	sátum	setið
6	taka	tek	tók	tókum	tekið
7	gráta	græt	grét	grétum	grátið

Below follows a detailed look at each verb group. See a full searchable list of strong verbs here.

Group 1

Vowel series: í – ei – i – i/e

Infinitive	1st p. past sing.	1st p. past plu.	Past participle
líta	leit	litum	litið
skríða	skreið	skriðum	skriðið
bíða	beið	biðum	beðið

One verb in this group is slightly irregular:

stíga

steig/sté

stigum

stigið

Group 2

Vowel series: jó/jú – au – u – o

Infinitive	1st p. past sing.	1st p. past plu.	Past participle
bjóða	bauð	buðum	boðið
sjóða	sauð	suðum	soðið
skjóta	skaut	skutum	skotið
fljúga	flaug	flugum	flogið
strjúka	strauk	strukum	strokið

Group 3

Vowel series: e/i – a – u – u/o

Infinitive	1st p. past sing.	1st p. past plu.	Past participle
detta	datt	duttum	dottið
skreppa	skrapp	skruppum	skroppið

Verbs in this group that start with v- in the infinitive lose this consonant before u or o:

verða	varð	urðum	orðið
vinna	vann	unnum	unnið

And binda and vinda are slightly irregular in the singular:

binda	batt	bundu	bundið
vinda	vatt	undu	undið

Group 4

Vowel series: e/o – a – á – o

Infinitive	1st p. past sing.	1st p. past plu.	Past participle
bera	bar	bárum	borið
skera	skar	skárum	skorið
stela	stal	stálum	stolið

Sofa gets a v in forms with a and á:

sofa

svaf

sváfum

sofið

Group 5

Vowel series: e/i – a – á – e

Infinitive	1st p. past sing.	1st p. past plu.	Past participle
gefa	gaf	gáfum	gefið
drepa	drap	drápum	drepið
biðja	bað	báðum	beðið
sitja	sat	sátum	setið

Geta has an irregular past participle when it means “can”:

geta

gat

gátum

getað

However, when it means “to guess”, the past participle is getið.

Group 6

Vowel series: a – ó – ó – a/e

Infinitive	1st p. past sing.	1st p. past plu.	Past participle
fara	fór	fórum	farið
taka	tók	tókum	tekið

Some verbs in this group have a g inserted in their past tense plural forms and past participle:

hlæja	hló	hlógum	hlegið
slá	sló	slógum	slegið

Standa has some gnarly consonant alternation (nd → ð) in its past tense forms and past participle:

standa

stóð

stóðum

staðið

Group 7

Vowel series: é – é

Vowel series: jó – u

🔥 Group 7 is a hot mess of everything that doesn’t quite fit in any other group. There is one commonality however:

• The vowel in the infinitive stem is (generally) the same as in the past participle.

Infinitive	1st p. past sing.	1st p. past plu.	Past participle
halda	hélt	héldum	haldið
gráta	grét	grétum	grátið
leika	lék	lékum	leikið
hlaupa	hljóp	hlupum	hlaupið

Fá, ganga and búa get some funky consonant changes:

fá	fékk	fengum	fengið
ganga	gekk	gengum	gengið
búa	bjó	bjuggum	búið