Kyn nafnorða

As previously stated, Icelandic has three genders:

  • Karlkyn (kk.) — masculine

  • Kvenkyn (kvk.) — feminine

  • Hvorugkyn (hk.) — neuter

This doesn’t just apply to adjectives—it applies to nouns, as well. “Gender” doesn’t necessarily mean a word is more “masculine” or “feminine.” Rather, it’s a method that classes these words by their grammatical gender.

This means that a grammatical gender doesn’t always align with natural gender. Blaðamaður (journalist) is grammatically masculine, but can be used to refer to female journalists. Likewise, grænmetisæta (vegetarian) is grammatically feminine, but men can use it to describe themselves.

However, common words for people tend to have the grammatical gender match the natural gender:

  • Maður (kk.) — man

  • Strákur (kk.) — boy

  • Kona (kvk.) — woman

  • Stelpa (kvk.) — girl

  • Bróður (kk.) — brother

  • Systir (kvk.) — sister

Sterk og veik nafnorð

Within each gender, they have two subcategories:

  • Sterk nafnorð (strong nouns) 💪

    • Ends in a consonant in their dictionary form (e.g. hestur, rós, land)

  • Veik nafnorð (weak nouns) 🥀

    • Ends in a vowel in their dictionary form (e.g. penni, kaka, hjarta)

Sterk karlkynsorð💪♂

Strong masculine nouns show the most variety in endings, with the most common one being -ur:

  • Hestur — horse

  • Gestur — guest

  • Dalur — valley

  • Staður — place

  • Dagur — day

While there are feminine and neuter nouns that end with -ur, like lifur (liver) and veður (weather) respectfully, these are the exceptions to the rule. Other masculine endings include -ir and -ll/nn:

  • Læknir — doctor

  • Vísir — indicator, hand (of a clock)

  • Reynir — mountain ash

  • Bíll — car

  • Gaffall — fork

  • Spegill — mirror

  • Egill (name)

  • Steinn — stone

  • Sveinn — boy, journeyman

  • Kolbeinn (name)

Veik karlkynsorð🥀♂

Weak masculine nouns have two varieties: -i and -a, with the vast majority of veik karlkynsorð ending with the former:

  • Penni — pen

  • Lampi — lamp

  • Krakki — kid, child

  • Benni (name)

Only a handful end with -a, and they are typically job titles:

  • Herra — lord, master

  • Ráðherra — minister

  • Séra — reverend

Sterk kvenkynsorð 💪♀

While strong feminine nouns don’t have clear endings like their masculine counterpart, they do follow a pattern:

  • Rós — rose

  • Mjólk — milk

  • Gjöf — gift, present

  • Önd — duck

  • Mús — mouse

  • Búð — store, shop

  • Guðrún (name)

  • Tá — toe

  • Brú — bridge

Most of these nouns have three things in common. They:

  • Contain an accented vowel

  • End in a consonant

  • Don’t have the other endings discussed in this lesson

If you see a word with these characteristics, it’s most likely a strong feminine noun.

Additionally there are two endings that are exclusive to these nouns, -ing and -un:

  • Æfing — training, practice

  • Spurning — question

  • Drottning — queen

  • Verslun — store, shop

  • Menntun — education

  • Ætlun — intention, purpose

Veik kvenkynsorð 🥀♀

Weak feminine nouns only end with -a, no exceptions:

  • Kaka — cake

  • Tala — numeral, speech

  • Kona — woman

  • Kirkja — church

  • Anna (name)

If you see such a noun, assume it’s weak feminine unless specified otherwise.

Sterk hvorugkynsorð 💪○

The following type of strong neuter nouns have no similar ending, though they do tend to share a similar pattern:

  • Land (self-explanatory)

  • Skip — ship, boat

  • Box (self-explanatory)

  • Fjall — mountain

  • Lauf — leaf

  • Blað — leaf, page

  • Hús — house

  • Rúm — bed

Most of these have no accented vowels, with hús and rúm being exceptions, and are single-syllable words; surprisingly, there are not considered sterk kvenkynsorð despite sharing a pattern.

The next pattern of strong neuter nouns ends with accented vowels:

  • Hné — knee

  • Tré — tree

  • Fé — sheep, livestock

  • Bakarí* — bakery

  • Fyllerí — boozing, drunkenness

  • Kakó — cacao

  • Bú — farm

  • Mý — midge, blackfly

  • Fræ — seed

  • Hræ — carcass, carrion

*Not to be confused with bakari, a weak masculine noun that means “baker.”

Nouns ending in é, í, and ó are generally neuter. However, ú and ý endings could also mean they’re feminine; the only way to be sure to memorize which ones are which, though ones ending in æ are always neuter. Earlier, we were introduced to tá and brú; these are still strong feminine nouns that are the exceptions to the sterk hk. rule.

Unfortunately, neuter nouns ending with -i are a bit tricky. Is it a strong neuter noun or a weak masculine noun? Here are some examples of ones that are strong nueter:

  • Belti — belt

  • Veski — wallet

  • Tæki — tool

  • Merki — sign, mark

  • Enni — forehead, brow

A rule of thumb is that if the noun is describing an abstract concept, such as tækifæri (opportunity), then it’s more likely to be sterk hvorugkynsorð. If it is describing a person, like nágranni (neighbor), then it’s almost certainly veik karlkynsorð.

Veik hvorugkynsorð 🥀♀

Weak neuter nouns only have one ending, -a, and there are only a few dozen of these:

  • Auga — eye

  • Eyra — ear

  • Hjarta — heart

  • Lunga — lung

  • Bjúga — smoked sausage

  • Pasta (self-explanatory)

  • Lasanja — lasagna

  • Þema — theme

Most of these are body parts, foods, and loanwords from Greek.

Fornöfn um nafnorð

In English, since all inanimate objects are gender neutral, we use the “it” pronoun with them:

  • "This is a stone. It is gray.”

  • “This is a church. It is big.”

  • “This is a wallet. It is brown.”

With Icelandic, the pronouns match the gender of the word:

  • Þetta er steinn. Hann er grár.

  • Þetta er kirkja. Hún er stór.

  • Þetta er veski. Það er brúnt.