sem, the invariable relative word: preposition stranding, possessive resumption and when to use commas.
I can describe a person or thing with a relative clause (maðurinn sem ég talaði við).
Look at these examples. Can you spot the grammar pattern?
Maðurinn sem ég talaði við í sundlauginni kennir í Hagaskóla.
The man I talked to at the pool teaches at Hagaskóli.
Bærinn sem við komum frá heitir Stykkishólmur.
The town we came from is called Stykkishólmur.
Konan sem bíllinn hennar bilaði á Hellisheiði fékk far með okkur.
The woman whose car broke down on Hellisheiði got a lift with us.
Þetta hús, sem var byggt 1920, er elsta húsið við götuna.
This house, which was built in 1920, is the oldest on the street.
Pay attention to the highlighted parts. What do they have in common?
Icelandic joins a relative clause to its noun with sem. It never changes: not for gender, not for number, not for case.
In older or formal writing you also meet er in the same role: sá er kemur fyrstur.
When the relative word belongs with a preposition, the preposition is left at the end of the clause:
Because sem has no genitive, Icelandic adds an ordinary possessive inside the clause:
A clause that identifies which one you mean takes no commas. A clause that merely adds information is fenced off with commas:
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
Practice ExercisesTrying to inflect sem or pair it with a preposition in front: *við sem ég talaði. - Building a genitive relative: *sem bíll instead of sem bíllinn hennar. - Putting commas around every relative clause. - Dropping sem the way English drops that: the woman I met is konan sem ég hitti.
Maðurinn sem ég talaði við í sundlauginni kennir í Hagaskóla.
The man I talked to at the pool teaches at Hagaskóli.
The preposition við stays at the end of the relative clause.
Bærinn sem við komum frá heitir Stykkishólmur.
The town we came from is called Stykkishólmur.
Same pattern with frá. Stykkishólmur is the harbour town on Snæfellsnes with the orange lighthouse on Súgandisey above the harbour.
Konan sem bíllinn hennar bilaði á Hellisheiði fékk far með okkur.
The woman whose car broke down on Hellisheiði got a lift with us.
hennar supplies the possession that sem cannot express. Hellisheiði is the pass east out of the capital, and it does break cars.
Þetta hús, sem var byggt 1920, er elsta húsið við götuna.
This house, which was built in 1920, is the oldest on the street.
Extra information, so commas on both sides.
Ég á vinkonu sem talar sex tungumál.
I have a friend who speaks six languages.
A defining clause, so no comma before sem.
Practice in course
Apply this grammar in A2 course exercises
The official orthographic rules. Rule 21.1.2 sets off with commas only the sem-clause that adds information and could be bracketed; the defining clause takes none.
The national inflection database; the inflection tables on this page are checked cell by cell against its entries.