sig, sér, sín and the possessive sinn: the third-person forms that point back at the subject.
I can tell his own from someone else's (mömmu sína vs mömmu hans) and use sig/sér correctly.
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Jón keypti sér lopapeysu á Skólavörðustíg.
Jón bought himself a lopapeysa on Skólavörðustígur.
Guðrún fór með börnin sín í Húsdýragarðinn á sunnudaginn.
Guðrún took her children to the Family Park on Sunday.
Kári hringdi í mömmu sína, ekki í mömmu hans.
Kári phoned his own mother, not his (the other man's) mother.
Ég þvæ mér alltaf um hendurnar áður en ég fer ofan í heita pottinn.
I always wash my hands before I get into the hot tub.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Icelandic has a dedicated pronoun for the same person as the subject. It has no nominative - it can never be a subject itself.
| Fall | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Þolfall | sig | Hún klæðir sig. (She gets dressed.) |
| Þágufall | sér | Hann keypti sér bók. (He bought himself a book.) |
| Eignarfall | sín | Hún gætir sín í hálkunni. (She is careful on the ice.) |
The matching possessive is sinn, sín, sitt, which agrees with the thing owned, exactly like minn:
| Fall | Karlkyn | Kvenkyn | Hvorugkyn |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nefnifall | sinn | sín | sitt |
| Þolfall | sinn | sína | sitt |
| Þágufall | sínum | sinni | sínu |
| Eignarfall | síns | sinnar | síns |
Plural: sínir / sínar / sín, accusative sína / sínar / sín, dative sínum throughout, genitive sinna throughout.
sig, sér, sín and sinn belong to the third person only, and they normally point at the subject of the sentence they stand in. (Icelandic also lets sig reach up to a higher subject across a subjunctive clause; that comes later.)
In the first and second person there is no special form; the ordinary pronouns do the work: ég þvæ mér, þú keyptir þér, ég tók bókina mína.
Note also sjálfur, used for emphasis: Hann talar alltaf um sjálfan sig (He always talks about himself).
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesExtending sinn to the first and second person the way Russian свой works: *Ég tók bókina sína instead of bókina mína. - Using hans/hennar where the reflexive is needed: Hann elskar konuna hans means he loves another man's wife. - Looking for a nominative form of sig; there is none. - Mixing sig (accusative) and sér (dative): Hann þvær sér um hendurnar, but Hún klæðir sig.
Jón keypti sér lopapeysu á Skólavörðustíg.
Jón bought himself a lopapeysa on Skólavörðustígur.
sér is the dative reflexive: he bought it for himself. Lopapeysa is the yoked wool sweater, and Skólavörðustígur is where the hand-knitting shops are.
Guðrún fór með börnin sín í Húsdýragarðinn á sunnudaginn.
Guðrún took her children to the Family Park on Sunday.
sín agrees with börnin (neuter plural) and marks them as her own children. Húsdýragarðurinn in Laugardalur is the standard Sunday outing with small children.
Kári hringdi í mömmu sína, ekki í mömmu hans.
Kári phoned his own mother, not his (the other man's) mother.
The minimal pair: sína points back at Kári, hans points at somebody else already mentioned.
Ég þvæ mér alltaf um hendurnar áður en ég fer ofan í heita pottinn.
I always wash my hands before I get into the hot tub.
First person, so mér and not sér. Washing before entering the pool is a rule Icelanders take seriously.
Sigga er ánægð með sjálfa sig eftir hlaupið.
Sigga is pleased with herself after the run.
sjálfa sig is the emphatic reflexive; sjálfur agrees in gender and case with the person.
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 standard reference grammar of Icelandic syntax; the authority for reflexive binding, including the long-distance cases that lie beyond A2.