-lega and neuter-form adverbs, their comparison, and the inn/inni/innan three-way system.
I can say how something is done and tell going there from being there (Ég fer heim / Ég er heima).
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Hún talar svo hratt að ég næ ekki helmingnum.
She talks so fast that I do not catch half of it.
Ég fer heim klukkan sex, en systir mín er heima allan daginn.
I go home at six, but my sister is at home all day.
Það er kaldara úti en inni, eins og venjulega.
It is colder outside than inside, as usual.
Hann kemur aldrei of seint í kórinn.
He is never late for choir.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Two everyday patterns cover most of them:
Two are simply suppletive: góður - vel, illur - illa.
| Frumstig | Miðstig | Efsta stig |
|---|---|---|
| vel | betur | best |
| illa | verr | verst |
| mikið | meira | mest |
| fljótt | fljótar | fljótast |
Icelandic keeps separate words for going there, being there and coming from there:
| Hreyfing | Staða | Frá (oftast með að) |
|---|---|---|
| inn | inni | að innan |
| út | úti | að utan |
| upp | uppi | að ofan |
| niður | niðri | að neðan |
| heim | heima | að heiman |
| hingað | hér | héðan |
| þangað | þar | þaðan |
So Ég fer heim but Ég er heima; Komdu hingað but Ég bý hér. Only héðan and þaðan stand alone in the third column; the others normally take að (fara að heiman, koma að utan), and innan, utan, ofan, neðan double as genitive prepositions: innan húss, utan vegar.
An adverb normally follows the finite verb: Hún talar hratt. Sentence adverbs such as ekki, alltaf, aldrei also come after it: Hann kemur aldrei of seint. Front the adverb and the V2 rule pushes the subject behind the verb: Oft fer ég í sund.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesUsing the masculine adjective as an adverb: Hún talar hratt, not *Hún talar hraður. - Mixing the three place series: *Ég er heim instead of Ég er heima. - Building a regular comparative for vel and illa: *velar, *illar instead of betur, verr. - Putting ekki before the finite verb.
Hún talar svo hratt að ég næ ekki helmingnum.
She talks so fast that I do not catch half of it.
hratt is the neuter form of hraður used as an adverb.
Ég fer heim klukkan sex, en systir mín er heima allan daginn.
I go home at six, but my sister is at home all day.
heim for going, heima for being - a distinction English lost and Icelandic kept.
Það er kaldara úti en inni, eins og venjulega.
It is colder outside than inside, as usual.
úti and inni are both location forms; venjulega is the -lega adverb from venjulegur.
Hann kemur aldrei of seint í kórinn.
He is never late for choir.
aldrei follows the finite verb. Choir singing is a mass participation sport in Iceland.
Komdu hingað, útsýnið er betra héðan.
Come here, the view is better from here.
hingað for movement towards the speaker, héðan for the source. betra is the comparative of the adjective góður agreeing with útsýnið, not the adverb betur.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
The national inflection database; the inflection tables on this page are checked cell by cell against its entries.
The institute's usage guidance; cited here for the directional adverbs - að innan, að utan, að ofan, að neðan, að heiman are not used bare, unlike héðan and þaðan.