# Icelandic poem I'm writing



## barefootfiona

I'm learning Icelandic, and one of the best ways of practising is by writing. So I wrote a short, rubbish little poem - ignore the pathetic literary skills, please. 

Could you tell me what this translates to?

"Ég vet ekki lengur, hvað ég er að gera hérna
Ég bitaði eplið, sem lofaði mikila gleði
Ég eftirsjá ekkert, en ég vil að fara heim. 
Af því að núna er allt bara sandur á tungunni minni"

I struggled with adjectives and cases and nouns, strong and weak, and man, Icelandic is hard! Please could you point out my mistakes? I've only been learning for a few weeks so it's all quite new.

I mean to say:
"I don't know anymore what I am doing here
I bit the apple, which promised much joy
I regret nothing, but I want to go home
Because now everything is only sand on my tongue."


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## Alxmrphi

I am also an Icelandic learner, not a native so I am not able to spot all the mistakes, and there are some things that I am also not sure about, but I will definitely give it a go.



> "Ég vet ekki lengur, hvað ég er að gera hérna
> "I don't know anymore what I am doing here


The 1st person singular is ve*i*t.
I think the word order should be 'hvað er ég' but I'm not 100% sure about that.




> Ég bitaði eplið, sem lofaði mikila gleði
> I bit the apple, which promised much joy



*Að bíta* is a strong verb, part of (what I call) *Group 1*.
This group is easy to spot because most of them have *í* in them.
Forming the past simple involves an í -> ei change (as you can see hérna).
So it should actually be Ég beit.
The feminine singular dative of _mikill_ is _mikilli_, not _mikila_ (see).


> Ég eftirsjá ekkert, en ég vil að fara heim.
> I regret nothing, but I want to go home



'eftirsjá' is a noun meaning regret, not a verb. You can (I believe) use either ég sé (sjá) eftir, or ég sakna instead.



> Af því að núna er allt bara sandur á tungunni minni"
> Because now everything is only sand on my tongue."



I think that looks fine.
I wish I could have composed something like that after only a few weeks of learning.

Good job!
I'm not able to talk about the validty of the sentence or 'how it comes across', only really about the grammatical things that can be observed. So there might be more things to be added by others.


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## Gavril

Alxmrphi said:


> *Að bíta* is a strong verb, part of (what I call) *Group 1*.



I would call this a "Group 1"-verb as well. Isn't this standard practice in Icelandic textbooks? (And in Old English textbooks, for that matter?)


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## barefootfiona

Gavril said:


> I would call this a "Group 1"-verb as well. Isn't this standard practice in Icelandic textbooks? (And in Old English textbooks, for that matter?)


 
I'm teaching myself, so I don't have a standard textbook. Is there one you could recommend? I was using a variety of sources, but considering the mistakes which were pointed out all came from one website, I won't be using that one anymore! Also, is there a better online Icelandic to English dictionary than Google Translate? Because I wouldn't even trust Google Translate with pouring the milk into my cereals in the morning.



Alxmrphi said:


> Að bíta is a strong verb, part of (what I call) Group 1.
> This group is easy to spot because most of them have í in them.
> Forming the past simple involves an í -> ei change (as you can see hérna).
> So it should actually be Ég beit.
> The feminine singular dative of mikill is mikilli, not mikila (see).


 
Thanks for the advice, and the wonderful website! I had no idea such a thing existed.



Alxmrphi said:


> 'eftirsjá' is a noun meaning regret, not a verb. You can (I believe) use either ég sé (sjá) eftir, or ég sakna instead.


 
Thanks  So here is my improved version:

_"Ég veit ekki lengur, hvað er ég að gera hérna_
_Ég beit eplið, sem lofaði mikilli gleði_
_Ég sjá eftir ekkert, en ég vil að fara heim. _
_Af því að núna er allt bara sandur á tungunni minni."_

At first I was considering:_ “...núna rennur bara svartur sandur úr munnanum mínum”_. Would that be correct?

Two more questions, if you don't mind: does _'ekkert'_ ever decline? And what is the difference between _'núna'_ and _'nú'_, _'hérna'_ and _'hér'_ etc?


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## sindridah

Ég veit ekki lengur hvað ég er að gera hérna.  ( I find it silly putting comma after *lengur* even tough it's a poem )

Ég beit eplið sem lofaði mikilli gleði

Ég sé ekki eftir neinu, en ég vil fara heim.

Af því að núna er bara allt í sandi á tungunni minni / af því að núna er einungis sandur á tungunni minni


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## Alxmrphi

Gavril said:


> I would call this a "Group 1"-verb as well. Isn't this standard practice in Icelandic textbooks? (And in Old English textbooks, for that matter?)



Unfortunately not.
There are some glaring inconsistencies in Icelandic textbooks.

Authors really want to reduce the 'perceived complexity' of things like the verb system so they either get rid of the groupings completely or bring the whole system down to around 3/4 different types (I count 6  groups of strong verbs and 4 of weak verbs).

The academic textbooks are usually more reliable than the introductory ones.
But yeah, where it's not aimed and trying to make it seem simpler than it is, it's called as such.

Besides, type-1 isn't a problem, it's when you get to Strong Group 3/4 in some books and the other info on the net collates them two, and others argue for a further split in (what I call) Weak Group 2, which I completely disagree with. There is consistency with Group 1 (Strong) though (where a book actually recognises groupings).


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## Silver_Biscuit

Barefootfiona, if you ever want to check conjugations/declensions, I don't know whether you've come across this site, but it is indispensible. 
One other thing I'd point out specifically, is that the construction 'want to verb' doesn't have an infinitive marker in Icelandic, even though it does in English. 'Ég vil fara' not 'ég vil *að* fara'. I know I made this mistake when I was a new learner, and I think a lot of people do, so it's an easy pitfall to fall into. Sindri already corrected it, but I just wanted to draw your attention to it 
Good luck with your Icelandic, it's a great language. And keep coming on this forum, it's so helpful to have discussions with natives and other learners.


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## sindridah

It's nice to have people like Alex and Silver_Biscuit to explain the grammar for me because they're much better then me. 

I think people who learn Icelandic from grammatically perspective are more capable then me explaining the grammar, I've just learned Icelandic from hearing it and so on....  

Hope i make some sense!


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## Alxmrphi

Silver_Biscuit said:


> One other thing I'd point out specifically, is that the construction 'want to verb' doesn't have an infinitive marker in Icelandic, even though it does in English. 'Ég vil fara' not 'ég vil *að* fara'. I know I made this mistake when I was a new learner, and I think a lot of people do, so it's an easy pitfall to fall into.


Ahhh I missed that!
That does need drilling into my head!

@Sindri: It makes perfect sense, if you look at posting in English Only, the teachers and grammar experts aside, it's the learners of English that know the rules, the natives just know 'what sounds good' and 'what might be possible', but they can't explain why. It's perfectly understandable, I bet me and SB would love to get an idea of what sounds like an 'ok sentence in Icelandic', but we can't, it's only you that can.

So it's a mixture of our knowledge of rules / little aspects, combined with a native's opinion, that make this forum work so well when it comes to questions


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## Gavril

@Barefootfiona: 
I'm not the best person to ask about learning sources for Icelandic, but here are two dictionaries I use: 1, 2. A quick review of Icelandic grammar can be found here.



Alxmrphi said:


> Unfortunately not.
> There are some glaring inconsistencies in Icelandic textbooks.
> 
> Authors really want to reduce the 'perceived complexity' of things like the verb system so they either get rid of the groupings completely or bring the whole system down to around 3/4 different types (I count 6  groups of strong verbs and 4 of weak verbs).



I think it's standard to count seven groups of strong verbs (see the Icelandic grammar page I linked to, and scroll down to "strong verbs"). Again, Old English has the same kind and number of strong verb groups, and maybe all the old Germanic languages are the same in this respect.



> Besides, type-1 isn't a problem, it's when you get to Strong Group 3/4 in some books and the other info on the net collates them two, and others argue for a further split in (what I call) Weak Group 2, which I completely disagree with. There is consistency with Group 1 (Strong) though (where a book actually recognises groupings).


The page I linked to above seems to count three groups of weak verbs: _kalla-(ég) kalla-kallaði, gera-geri-gerði, _and _telja-tel-taldi_. Obviously you have more experience with the language than I do, but I think at least three groupings of weak verbs (if not more) are justified.


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## JógaUgla

barefootfiona said:


> And what is the difference between _'núna'_ and _'nú'_, _'hérna'_ and _'hér'_ etc?



That's not an easy question to answer. If you Google "A sequential analysis of _nú_ and _núna_ in Icelandic conversation" by Helga Hilmisdóttir, you'll find a 351-page pdf file dedicated to that single topic.

I'm a beginning student, so that's more detail than I personally need to know. I've only skimmed the abstract and conclusion. The gist is that most Icelanders would describe the words as equivalent, but subtle differences appear through sampling of actual conversation.

When I responded recently to Alxmrphi in another thread, I wrote: "_Nú skil ég_." By placing _nú_ in the lead and choosing that term instead of _núna_, I was effectively expressing excitement over something that was happening in the moment. (Helga refers to this as an _affective stance_.) "Nooow I understand," was my pleased reply after I'd tried and failed to find the answer for myself.

I think _núna_ is lovely in your poem. That feedback comes with a caveat that I don't yet know very much Icelandic. But unless a native speaker suggests differently, I imagine it's fine.

As for _hér_ and _hérna_, the grammar lessons which accompany the Icelandic Online course state that there is no difference in meaning. I've taken the authors at their word and haven't investigated further. There is a difference for _þar_ and _þarna_, however. _Þarna_ is used only to refer to something within view.


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## Alxmrphi

Helga Himisdóttir?? I think she is the author of one of the beginner books I have.
I'm definitely going to find that article now (thanks for telling me about it).

I was also under the impression there was no difference between _hér _and_ hérna_, but one (slight) difference existed between the other two. "Colloquial Icelandic" has the following to say:


> You may have noticed the brackets around *-na* in *hérna*. This is because* hér *and *hérna *are interchangeable, while *þar* and* þarna* are not:
> 
> • *þarna* is exclusively used as a demonstrative pronoun, indicating something in visual range:_ kirkjan er þarna_, ‘_the church is there_' (i.e. within view).
> 
> • *þar* is used to refer to a location mentioned earlier, as in, for instance: _Akureyri. Þar er gott að vera_. *Þar *is also found in the combination *þar sem*, which means ‘where’, but can only be used to connect two clauses: _húsið þar sem Matthías Jochumsson bjó_', ‘_the house where Matthías lives_'​


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