# Icelandic:  Holiday Greetings



## Grefsen

Would the following be correct for wishing someone "Merry Christmas" in Icelandic?

Gleðileg jól!

I'd also like to write the following in a Christmas card to several of my Icelandic friends:

I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas.

My attempt:

Ég óska þér og fjölskyldu þinni mjög gleðileg jól.


----------



## Alxmrphi

Hæ Gref, "Gleiðileg jól" is right... about the rest... I'm not sure:
I think it should be "*Ég óska þér og fjölskyldu þinni mjög gleiðilegs jóla*"

(because the construction (að óska) calls for dative + genitive, so I've added the genitive to make it make sense... I hope)


----------



## Grefsen

Alxmrphi said:


> Hæ Gref, "Gleiðileg jól" is right... about the rest... I'm not sure:
> I think it should be "*Ég óska þér og fjölskyldu þinni mjög gleiðilegs jóla*"


For fun I put your suggestion into an online translator and got the following result:

"I wish you and your family a very wide legs Christmas."


----------



## Alxmrphi

Hahaha, that's so funny.
Automatic translation is fundamentally flawed and should never be trusted (IMHO), but that is complete nonsense (it came up as well for me on Google Translate)

It seems to translate "gleiðileg(ur)" as wide, but it's absolutely without doubt the expression in Icelandic is "gleiðileg jól", when it doesn't understand something it keeps it in its original form (I presume this is for brand names / things that aren't meant to be translated)

So it's taken "legs" (end of gleiðilegs) and kept its form so it looks like "wide legs".
Google's translation method is supposed to be 'innovative' by using comparisons of a vast corpus of common translations but with Icelandic there is the first problem of not that much information on the net (due to the population of the speakers) and also of its vastly complicated and intricate grammar.

There aren't that many Icelanders on here these days (used to be many more) but I think we just need a native confirmation on this one as mine is only a guess based on what the dictionary says the structure should be (gleiðilegur is what I presume to be the adjective, with the regular -legur ending which would be -leg next to jól and.. *revelation*

Woops I used the genitive singular ending of the adjective, but it should be the genitive plural (jól (xmas) is plural and I keep forgetting)

So I refine my guess to be:

Ég óska þér og fjölskyldu þinni mjög gleiðilegra jóla

Which (in Google Translate) just translates everything except that bloody adjective.
I think I've wrongly assumed it was a normal adjective.

My advice is then to use a different one (*ánægður *fits I think) so:

Ég óska þér og fjölskyldu þinni mjög *ánægðra* jóla.
Google translate seems to agree here.


----------



## butra

Alxmrphi said:


> Ég óska þér og fjölskyldu þinni mjög gleiðilegra jóla


 
Ég óska þér og fjölskyldu þinni gleðilegra jóla.


----------



## Alxmrphi

butra said:


> Ég óska þér og fjölskyldu þinni gleðilegra jóla.


 
Takk kærlega, ég leitaði í margar orðabók en ég get fannst ekki uppsláttarorð fyrir orðið '*gleiðilegur*'.. Nú veit ég að er rétt 

(Velkominn aftur! )


----------



## Silver_Biscuit

Alex, it might be because you are slightly misspelling it: gleðilegur, not gleiðilegur.


----------



## Alxmrphi

Silver_Biscuit said:


> Alex, it might be because you are slightly misspelling it: gleðilegur, not gleiðilegur.


 
 *hangs head in shame* how did I not realise?!!?!?
(Thanks for the correction)


----------



## Grefsen

Alxmrphi said:


> Hahaha, that's so funny.
> Automatic translation is fundamentally flawed and should never be trusted (IMHO), but that is complete nonsense (it came up as well for me on Google Translate)


I agree with you that the online translators "should never be trusted,"  but the good news is that some have improved quite a lot during recent years. I have found that Google can be especially helpful when I'm attempting to translate a passage that has a number of words I have difficulty finding in a dictionary.



butra said:


> Ég óska þér og fjölskyldu þinni gleðilegra jóla.


Thanks for the correction *butra.*

How would I instead write "I hope you and your family are having a nice Christmas holiday?"

Here is the "Icenglish" result that the Google translator gives me:

Ég vona að þú og fjölskylda þín eru having a ágætur Christmas frídagur.  

I'm also curious to know if there is an Icelandic term for the period of time between Christmas and New Year's eve similar to the Norwegian term *"romjul?"*


----------



## Grefsen

I would like to send holiday greetings to  several Icelandic friends that say both "I wish you  a Happy New Year!" and "I hope you and your family have had a nice Christmas holiday."

Here are my attempts:

Ég óska þér gleðilegt nýtt ár!"

 Ég vona einnig að þú og fjölskylda þín hafa gleðilegra jóla.


----------

