Pronouns in the accusative, dative and genitive: mig, mér, mín - and the verbs that pick each case.
I can put a pronoun in the case the verb or preposition requires (Ari bauð mér í sund; ég sakna þín).
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Ari bauð mér í sund eftir vinnu.
Ari invited me to the pool after work.
Ég sakna þín þegar þú ert fyrir norðan.
I miss you when you are up north.
Mig langar í eina kleinu með kaffinu.
I fancy one kleina with the coffee.
Embla hjálpaði honum að bera kassana upp á fjórðu hæð.
Embla helped him carry the boxes up to the fourth floor.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
You already know the subject forms. The moment a pronoun becomes an object, follows a preposition, or sits with one of the experiencer verbs, it changes shape. These are the aukaföll - the three cases other than the nominative.
| Fall | ég | þú | hann | hún | það |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nefnifall | ég | þú | hann | hún | það |
| Þolfall | mig | þig | hann | hana | það |
| Þágufall | mér | þér | honum | henni | því |
| Eignarfall | mín | þín | hans | hennar | þess |
| Fall | við | þið | þeir | þær | þau |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nefnifall | við | þið | þeir | þær | þau |
| Þolfall | okkur | ykkur | þá | þær | þau |
| Þágufall | okkur | ykkur | þeim | þeim | þeim |
| Eignarfall | okkar | ykkar | þeirra | þeirra | þeirra |
The genitive forms are the rarest. You meet them after til, án, vegna and after a small set of verbs - sakna, minnast.
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesUsing the dative after þakka (*þakka þig) instead of þakka þér. - Using the dative after sakna (*sakna þér) instead of the genitive sakna þín. - Dropping the subject pronoun: Icelandic does not normally leave it out the way Russian does, so Ég vil kaffi keeps its ég. - Treating þér as a polite you: in modern Icelandic it is the dative of þú. The polite þér you meet in old bibles and hymns is a separate, obsolete form with its own obliques yður, yðar.
Ari bauð mér í sund eftir vinnu.
Ari invited me to the pool after work.
bjóða e-m í e-ð puts the person in the dative: mér, not mig. Going to the neighbourhood pool after work is the ordinary Icelandic way of seeing a friend.
Ég sakna þín þegar þú ert fyrir norðan.
I miss you when you are up north.
sakna takes the genitive: þín. Icelanders say fyrir norðan rather than naming the region.
Mig langar í eina kleinu með kaffinu.
I fancy one kleina with the coffee.
langa puts the person in the accusative: mig, never *mér. Kleina is the twisted doughnut that comes with coffee everywhere from a petrol station to a grandmother's table.
Embla hjálpaði honum að bera kassana upp á fjórðu hæð.
Embla helped him carry the boxes up to the fourth floor.
hjálpa governs the dative, exactly as its Russian counterpart does.
Þakka þér kærlega fyrir kvöldið!
Thank you very much for the evening!
þakka takes the dative þér, and the thing thanked for follows fyrir in the accusative.
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 status of the polite þér, which modern Icelandic no longer uses, and for the fixed í / á choice with individual place names.