Icelandic Middle Voice

The Middle Voice in Icelandic

The middle voice is used to show that something is being done together. It can also replace reflexives. The middle voice is very easy to form. Simply add –st to the conjugated verb. There are only a few points to remember:

Remove – ur , -rð and –ð before adding –st

Remove dentals before adding –st

The middle voice is a useful of shortening sentence as it expresses the idea of “each other” or “self”. For example, insted of saying ég hitti þig og þú hettir mig (i meet you and you meet me) simply say ég og þú hittumst.

There are a few verbs which change their meaning in the middle voice. Koma (come) becomes komast (get somewhere). Taka (take) becomes takast to mean succeed and gera becomes gerast meaning happen.