Íslenzka.net ~ An Icelandic Journey

In this post we’ll examine a common verb that you encounter early on in studying Icelandic, or any language for that matter – to live:

As you can see it’s a very irregular verb, so you just have to memorize it 🙂

This is the word you’d use to ask:
Hvar býrð þú? – Where do you live?
Ég bý á Íslandi. – I live in Iceland.

Bjuggu þau ekki í Kanada? – Didn’t they live in Canada?
Hvenær bjóst þú í Danmörku? – When did you live in Denmark?

Another way to say where you live is with the phrase “eiga heima“:
Við eigum heima á Akureyri. – We live in Akureyri.
Hvar á hún heima? – Where does she live?

When you are saying which street someone lives on, you use either í or á plus the dative, and possibly a number (in the neuter):

Hann býr á Vesturgötu 4 (fjögur). – He lives at 4 Vesturgata.
Þau búa á Laugavegi. – They live on Laugavegur.
Ég bý í Austurstræti. – I live on Austurstraeti.

But að búa has other uses in addition to meaning live. For example, in its reflexive form, búast við + dative means to expect or be prepared for something:

Við verðum að búast við rigningu í dag.
We should expect (be prepared for) rain today.
Kvikmyndin var betri en ég bjóst við.
The movie was better than I expected.
Enginn býrst við spænska rannsóknarréttinum.
No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

The phrase að búa til means to make or prepare something:

Mama mín býr til góðan mat. – My mother is making a good meal.
Þau bjuggu til sögu um hund. – They made up a story about a dog.

The word búinn also comes from að búa – it is the past participle. You see this most often in the phrase:

að vera búinn að + infinitive
To have done something / finished doing something

Hann er búinn að lesa bókin. – He has finished reading the book.
Þær eru búnar að vinna. – They (female) have finished working.
Ertu búinn að tala við hana? – Have you spoken to her?

This is að búa in its most basic form – I hope it helps when you are asked where you live 🙂