For any given verb you need to keep track of voice, mood, tense, person and number.
| What | Tag | Icelandic term | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voice | GM / MM | germynd / miðmynd | Active and middle voice. |
| Mood | FH / VH / BH | framsöguháttur / viðtengingarháttur / boðháttur | Indicative, subjunctive and imperative. |
| Tense | NT / ÞT | nútíð / þátíð | Present and past. |
| Non-finite forms | NH / LHNT / SAGNB | nafnháttur / lýsingarháttur nútíðar / sagnbót | Infinitive, present participle, supine. |
The minimum to memorize: the infinitive, the present 1st person singular, the past 1st person singular and the supine. For weak verbs this is usually enough to recognize the pattern; for strong and irregular verbs it is a must.
For a regular active paradigm in the present tense, it helps to keep this skeleton in mind:
| Person | Form | Example with tala |
|---|---|---|
| ég | stem + ∅ | tala |
| þú | stem + -r | talar |
| hann / hún / það | stem + -r | talar |
| við | stem + -um | tölum |
| þið | stem + -ið | talið |
| þeir / þær / þau | stem + -a | tala |
The 1st person plural often triggers the u-umlaut: a → ö, which is why tala gives tölum.
Weak verbs form the past tense with a suffix; the root is usually more stable than in strong verbs. A detailed breakdown of the four classes lives in the dedicated weak verbs cheat sheet.
| Person | Present | Past |
|---|---|---|
| ég | tala | talaði |
| þú | talar | talaðir |
| hann / hún / það | talar | talaði |
| við | tölum | töluðum |
| þið | talið | töluðuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | tala | töluðu |
Usually gives a past tense in -aði and a supine in -að.
Often a past tense in -ði and a supine in -t.
The past tense may take the suffix -ti; the supine has to be checked separately.
For a weak verb it is best to learn three key forms right away: the infinitive, the 1st person past and the supine.
For regular verbs it is useful to remember two frequent forms separately:
| What | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | BH-ET | talaðu! |
| Plural / polite | BH-FT | talið! |
In strong verbs the past tense and often the supine are built by changing the root vowel, not just by adding a suffix.
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Supine |
|---|---|---|---|
| að lesa | ég les | ég las | lesið |
| að finna | ég finn | ég fann | fundið |
| að fara | ég fer | ég fór | farið |
| að brjóta | ég brýt | ég braut | brotið |
The most common mistake is trying to guess the supine from the past tense. For strong verbs it has to be learned separately.
| Person | Present | Past |
|---|---|---|
| ég | fer | fór |
| þú | ferð | fórst |
| hann / hún / það | fer | fór |
| við | förum | fórum |
| þið | farið | fóruð |
| þeir / þær / þau | fara | fóru |
The middle voice often looks like just an "-st form", but its meaning can be reflexive, reciprocal or lexicalized.
Miðmynd has no direct one-to-one equivalent in English, but it often works like a reflexive or reciprocal construction. It can express:
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ég | kallast |
| þú | kallast |
| hann / hún / það | kallast |
| við | köllumst |
| þið | kallist |
| þeir / þær / þau | kallast |
In the plural, miðmynd forms have endings of their own, so mechanically adding "active + st" does not always give the correct result.
In the Beyging app, the middle voice comes with the tag MM, for example:
These forms come up constantly in dictionaries, corpora and BÍN output.
| Tag | Icelandic term | English equivalent | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| NH | nafnháttur | Infinitive | að tala |
| BH-ET / BH-FT | boðháttur | Imperative | talaðu / talið |
| LHNT | lýsingarháttur nútíðar | Present participle | talandi |
| SAGNB | sagnbót | Supine | talað |
Active voice, indicative mood, present tense, 1st person, singular.
Active voice, indicative mood, past tense, 3rd person, plural.
Middle voice, subjunctive mood, present tense, 2nd person, singular.
Active voice, imperative mood, plural.
This page gives you a map of the patterns. If you need the full table for a real verb, the project already includes the Beyging app on the declensions.html page: it pulls the actual forms from BÍN and shows the active and middle voice separately.
These forms come up all the time, so it pays to learn them as a set of their own.
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Supine |
|---|---|---|---|
| að vera | er | var | verið |
| að hafa | hef | hafði | haft |
| að gera | geri | gerði | gert |
| að fá | fæ | fékk | fengið |
| að koma | kem | kom | komið |
| að vilja | vil | vildi | viljað |
| Person | Present | Past |
|---|---|---|
| ég | er | var |
| þú | ert | varst |
| hann / hún / það | er | var |
| við | erum | vorum |
| þið | eruð | voruð |
| þeir / þær / þau | eru | voru |