# Icelandic:  Afhverju, Hví, or Hvers Vegna?



## Nroach

Are there any rules dictating the use of these three?  In the stuff I've seen, _hvers vegna _is rarely used, but so is _hví.  _I'm not sure if that's representative of proper use, though.

I imagine it's similar to the German _warum_ and _wieso_, but I doubt I should stretch that comparison too far.


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## Silver_Biscuit

I don't speak German at all, but in terms of meaning, all three are pretty much interchangeable. _Hví_ might be interpreted as a little more 'poetic' or 'formal'. You are indeed correct in your observations that _af hverju_ is the most common. But basically, you can use whichever you like.


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## Nroach

Silver_Biscuit said:


> I don't speak German at all, but in terms of meaning, all three are pretty much interchangeable. _Hví_ might be interpreted as a little more 'poetic' or 'formal'. You are indeed correct in your observations that _af hverju_ is the most common. But basically, you can use whichever you like.



Thanks.  My instinct was that _Hví _was less formal and more common, simply because it looks like it might be a borrowing from English (though I suppose a borrowing would be _Væ_, if anything.)


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## Silver_Biscuit

_Hví_ is indeed an obvious cognate of _why_, but I believe it's more like two words with a shared history rather than a borrowing in either direction


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## Daniel20

I was told by an Icelander that one is more of 'to what end...' whereas the other is more likely the English 'why'. But, however much of this is true I don't know, and I can't even remember which is which, but maybe one of the natives on here can confirm/deny this distinction.


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## Silver_Biscuit

You might be thinking of 'til hvers'. That means 'to what end'.


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## Segorian

Silver_Biscuit said:


> _Hví_ is indeed an obvious cognate of _why_, but I believe it's more like two words with a shared history rather than a borrowing in either direction


Yes, it’s essentially the same word (_hwī_ in Old English). _Hví_ sees very little use in modern Icelandic. _Af hverju_ is dominant in speech, but _hvers vegna_ is common in the written language, especially in formal texts. Some people consider _hvers vegna_ to be the more distinguished expression of the two. In older poetry (pre-1950s approximately), _hví_ occurs frequently because it is short and therefore easier to fit into lines using traditional metre.


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## Nroach

Segorian said:


> Yes, it’s essentially the same word (_hwī_ in Old English). _Hví_ sees very little use in modern Icelandic. _Af hverju_ is dominant in speech, but _hvers vegna_ is common in the written language, especially in formal texts. Some people consider _hvers vegna_ to be the more distinguished expression of the two. In older poetry (pre-1950s approximately), _hví_ occurs frequently because it is short and therefore easier to fit into lines using traditional metre.



Personally, I like _hvers vegna _because it can be translated to _whose fault is it?_.


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## Silver_Biscuit

I like _hví_ because it's snappy. Although I'm aware of how it's perceived, so I don't use it all that much, I just really like it.


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## Segorian

Silver_Biscuit said:


> I like _hví_ because it's snappy. Although I'm aware of how it's perceived, so I don't use it all that much, I just really like it.


 I agree; I wish it was used more. If we both do it, we might make a difference! One way could be to revive some of the expressions containing the word which are actually in common use (or have been in recent decades), such as _Hví þá það?_ or _Hví ekki að…._


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