Ha?
Ha? is equivalent to the English “Huh?” or “Hm?” but is used way more than in English and in more circumstances. It means “What did you just say?”, but it’s not rude at all. You say “ha?” when:
- You didn’t hear what the other person said
- You just can’t believe what the other person said
Sometimes foreigners think “ha?” sounds too aggressive, like the person saying it is being very rude or angry. That’s not the case at all, “ha?” is a very normal word that’s not rude at all, and it is used both between friends and in professional settings.
Hvað ert þú að gera?
Ha?
Ég sagði, hvað ert þú að gera?
Sorrí, ég kem ekki á morgun.
Ha?! Af hverju ekki?
Þessi banani kostar 2.000 krónur.
Ha? Það getur ekki verið.
Að
Að is used a lot in Icelandic. It can have several different uses, but most often it means to as in “to sing” (að syngja). Another common use of “að” is to connect sentence together: Bjarni segir að mamma komi á eftir, but that is a more advanced topic.
Like in English, when using the basic form of the verb (called the infinitive 🌺 form), we usually include the “að”:
- Hann lærir að lesa í skólanum. = He learns to read in school.
- Ég þarf að pissa. = I need to pee.
- Ég nenni ekki að tala við hann. = I’m not in the mood to talk to him.
But we also use it when English would use an -ing ending:[a]
- Ég er að syngja. = I am singing.
- Ég kem ekki á morgun, ég er að vinna. = I won’t come tomorrow, I am working.
- Hvað ert þú að gera?! = What are you doing?!
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What’s that strange click sound?
When two {{code}}’s are in a row, the pronunciation can seem a bit strange. {{code}} is pronounced like [tl]:
- full, lítill, allir, jökull, engill, krókódíll
Some words don’t have this click sound, those words tend to be either foreign or cute:
- halló, milljón, brilljant, bolla, Solla, Halli
Sæll!
Now that you know how to pronounce your {{code}}s, it’s time to learn the business casual greeting.
Sæll means happy or content. It’s one of the most common ways to greet someone and works well both between good friends and in a professional setting.
Hlustunarleikir:
- sæll
- sæl
- sæl, Anna!
- sæll, Stefán!
- hæ
- góðan daginn
This
To refer to something close, you use þetta. The word changes a bit based on gender: {| class=“wikitable” |+ ! ! ! ! |- ! |þessi |þessi |þetta |}
- Þessi{{kvk kaka er góð{{kvk}}} = This cake is good.
- Þetta{{hk lamb er fallegt{{hk}}} = This lamb is pretty.
- Þessi{{kk köttur er þreyttur{{kk}}} = This cat is tired.
If we’re referring to something more generally or if we’re pointing something out by saying “this thing here”, the default is to use the neuter form þetta :
- Hvað er þetta?{{hk}} = What is this?
- Þetta{{hk er ekki fyndið.}} = This isn’t funny.
- Þetta{{hk getur ekki verið rétt}} = This cannot be true
- Þetta{{hk er góð kaka{{kvk}}} = This is a good cake, or This right here is a good cake.
- Þetta{{hk er konan[[Feminine}} = This right here is the woman that came yesterday.
- Notice that we’re pointing out this woman more generally. If we just want to say “This woman came yesterday” we’d say Þessi{{kvk kona[[Feminine}}
- Þetta{{hk er góð kaka{{kvk}}} = This is a good cake, but this one is better.
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