Icelandic Articles

How to say a, an, and the in Icelandic

There is no indefinite article in Icelandic, meaning that the word barn (child) means both child and a child. There is no translation for a or an in Icelandic.

In the following table, the nouns bíll – car, nemandi – pupil, rós – rose, kirkja – church, and barn – child are given in all of their cases in the indefinite form:

singular	masculine		feminine		neuter
	-ur, -l, -n	-i	no ending	-a
nominative	bíll	nemandi	rós	kirkja	barn
accusative	bíl	nemanda	rós	kirkju	barn
dative	bíl	nemanda	rós	kirkju	barni
genitive	bíls	nemanda	rósar	kirkju	barns

plural	masculine		feminine		neuter
	-ur, -l, -n	-i	no ending	-a
nominative	bílar	nemendur	rósir	kirkjur	börn
accusative	bíla	nemendur	rósir	kirkjur	börn
dative	bílum	nemendum	rósum	kirkjum	börnum
genitive	bíla	nemenda	rósa	kirkja	barna

Definite Article in Icelandic

The definite article (the) is suffixed to the noun and its declensions, instead of preceding it as a separate word as in English. The table below shows the definite article and its various declensions that need to be added to the end of each form of the noun:

singular	masculine		feminine		neuter
	-ur, -l, -n	-i	no ending	-a
nominative	inn	nn	in	n	ið
accusative	inn	nn	ina	na	ið
dative	num	num	inni	nni	nu
genitive	ins	ns	innar	nnar	ins

plural	masculine		feminine		neuter
	-ur, -l, -n	-i	no ending	-a
nominative	nir	nar	nar	nar	in
accusative	na	nar	nar	nar	in
dative	num	num	num	num	num
genitive	nna	nna	nna	nna	nna

The definite forms of the five nouns given above, with the definite article attached to the end:

singular	masculine		feminine		neuter
	-ur, -l, -n	-i	no ending	-a
nominative	bíllinn	nemandinn	rósina	kirkjan	barnið
accusative	bílinn	nemandann	rósinni	kirkjuni	barnið
dative	bílnum	nemandanum	rósinna	kirkjunna	barninu
genitive	bílsins	nemandans	rósarinnar	kirkjunnir	barnsins

plural	masculine		feminine		neuter
	-ur, -l, -n	-i	no ending	-a
nominative	bílarnir	nemendurnir	rósirnar	kirkjurnar	börnin
accusative	bílana	nemendurna	rósirnar	kirkjurnar	börnin
dative	bílunum	nemendunum	rósunum	kirkjunum	börnunum
genitive	bílanna	nemandanna	rósanna	kirkjanna	barnanna