![\"Iceland-map\"](\"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Iceland-map.png\")
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Congratulations on your decision to learn Icelandic! You are part of an elite club of only 320,000 or so native speakers, several thousand who speak it as a second language, and a smattering of crazy people like us who are learning it for fun \ud83d\ude42 I’ve been studying Icelandic on my own for a year or so now and decided to start blogging about it as a way to focus my learning on specific topics, and in the process find other learners who might find it useful. If any native speakers happen upon this site, your input and corrections are certainly welcome. The posts will generally be about whatever I’ve learned or reviewed recently, or some interesting vocabulary or phrases I came across.<\/p>\n
I’ve listed some resources that have helped me in my studies in the Icelandic Resources<\/a> section, hopefully you have one more more of beginning books listed, and we can use those as reference points. If there are any specific topics you’d like to discuss, let me know<\/a> and I’ll put together a post about it. Some phrases: \u00ed byrjun + gen.<\/strong> – at the beginning of something: g\u00f3\u00f0\/sl\u00e6m byrjun<\/strong> – good\/bad start<\/p>\n It can also be used in the sense of onset<\/em>, as in the onset of an illness: a\u00f0 vera byrjandi \u00ed + dat.<\/em><\/strong> – to be a beginner at something byrja + inf<\/em><\/strong> – begin to do something Vi\u00f0 byrju\u00f0um \u00ed sk\u00f3la \u00ed s\u00ed\u00f0ustu viku.<\/strong> – We started school last week.<\/p>\n Hope this helps you talk about getting started with something \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Congratulations on your decision to learn Icelandic! You are part of an elite club of only 320,000 or so native…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":87,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1597,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions\/1597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nSince this initial post represents a beginning, let’s talk about ‘begin’ in Icelandic:
\n<\/p>\n\n
\n byrj\/un f (-unar, -anir) beginning, outset<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n <\/th>\n singular<\/th>\n plural<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n nom<\/th>\n byrjun<\/td>\n byrjanir<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n acc<\/th>\n byrjun<\/td>\n byrjanir<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n dat<\/th>\n byrjun<\/td>\n byrjunum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n gen<\/th>\n byrjunar<\/td>\n byrjana<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
\nfr\u00e1 byrjun til enda<\/strong> – from start till finish \/ beginning till end<\/p>\n
\n\u00ed byrjun \u00e1rs<\/strong> – at the beginning of the year
\n\u00ed byrjun n\u00e6sta m\u00e1na\u00f0ar<\/strong> – at the beginning of next month<\/p>\n
\n\u00ed byrjun flensu<\/strong> – at the onset of the flu
\n
\nAnd a term that is especially applicable to us students:<\/p>\n\n
\n byrj\/andi m (-anda, -endur) beginner<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n <\/th>\n singular<\/th>\n plural<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n nom<\/th>\n byrjandi<\/td>\n byrjendur<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n acc<\/th>\n byrjanda<\/td>\n byrjendur<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n dat<\/th>\n byrjanda<\/td>\n byrjendum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n gen<\/th>\n byrjanda<\/td>\n byrjenda<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
\nHann er byrjandi \u00ed sk\u00e1k.<\/strong> – He is a beginner at chess.
\nI’ve also seen \u00e1<\/strong> used instead of \u00ed<\/strong>, but I’m not sure what the distinction is.
\n
\nbyrja<\/em><\/strong> is a regular verb that conjugates as:<\/p>\n\n
\n byrj\/a v (acc) ( -a\u00f0i) start, begin<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n <\/th>\n present<\/th>\n past<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n \n \u00e9g<\/th>\n byrja<\/td>\n byrja\u00f0i<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n \u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\n byrjar<\/td>\n byrja\u00f0ir<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n \u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\n byrjar<\/td>\n byrja\u00f0i<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n vi\u00f0<\/th>\n byrjum<\/td>\n byrju\u00f0um<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n \u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\n byrji\u00f0<\/td>\n byrju\u00f0u\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n \u00feau<\/th>\n byrja<\/td>\n byrju\u00f0u<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
\n\u00c9g byrja a\u00f0 vinna klukkan sj\u00f6 \u00e1 morgnana.<\/strong> – I start work at 7 o’clock in the morning.<\/p>\n