margur, fár, allnokkur: Quantity Adjectives | Icelandic Grammar

In English, "many" and "few" are frozen little words: many books, many people, many ideas — the form never changes. Icelandic words for the same notions are full-blown adjectives that decline and agree in gender, number, and case, exactly like stór ("big") or góður ("good"). Margur ("many"), fár ("few"), allnokkur ("quite a few"), and ýmis ("various") all inflect, and two of them — margur and fár — even change their stem vowel by u-umlaut (margur → mörg, fár → fá). This page teaches their forms, the lovely "many a man" distributive singular, and the trick where the neuter form stands alone as a pronoun ("many things, few things"). Get these right and your Icelandic immediately sounds less like translated English.

margur: 'many' that agrees

Margur means "many," and unlike English "many" it takes the full set of adjective endings. The forms you most need are the nominative ones, where the u-umlaut surfaces in the feminine singular and the neuter plural (a → ö):

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	margur	mörg	margt
Plural	margir	margar	mörg

So "many men" is margir menn (masculine plural), "many women" is margar konur (feminine plural), and "many houses" is mörg hús (neuter plural, with the u-umlaut ö). Whatever the gender of the counted noun, margur matches it.

Margir nemendur mættu ekki í tímann í morgun.

Many students didn't show up for class this morning. — 'margir' is masculine plural, agreeing with masculine 'nemendur'.

Það eru margar leiðir til að gera þetta.

There are many ways to do this. — 'margar' is feminine plural, agreeing with feminine 'leiðir'.

Mörg börn í bekknum tala tvö tungumál heima.

Many children in the class speak two languages at home. — 'mörg' is neuter plural (with u-umlaut ö), agreeing with neuter 'börn'.

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Watch the u-umlaut: margur becomes mörg in exactly two cells — the feminine singular and the neuter plural. So "many houses" is mörg hús, not *marg hús. The neuter singular is the irregular margt (with -gt), and there is no comparative *margari — "more" is the suppletive fleiri, "most" is flestir.

margur maður: 'many a man' — the distributive singular

Here is a use that surprises English speakers. Margur can appear in the singular with a singular noun and a singular verb, and it then means "many a ―" — picking out individuals one by one rather than as a mass. Margur maður is not "a many man"; it's "many a man," i.e. "many people, considered individually." This is a slightly elevated, almost proverbial register (literary), beloved of proverbs and aphorisms, but it's alive in ordinary thoughtful speech too.

Margur maður hefur farið flatt á því að treysta honum.

Many a man has come a cropper trusting him. — singular 'margur maður' with singular verb 'hefur'; the distributive singular, 'many a man'.

Margur heldur mig sig.

Many judge others by themselves (lit. 'many a one thinks me [to be like] himself'). — a fixed proverb showing the bare distributive 'margur' standing alone.

The contrast is worth feeling: margir menn hafa farið flatt (plural) states it as a group fact; margur maður hefur farið flatt (singular) frames the same truth one person at a time, which is exactly the flavour of "many a man." English keeps a fossil of this in "many a ―" + singular; Icelandic uses it more freely.

fár: 'few', the negative twin of margur

Fár ("few") is the lexical mirror image of margur, and it declines the same way, with its own vowel pattern. The masculine singular is fár, the feminine fá, the neuter singular fátt; the plural is fáir / fáar / fá:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	fár	fá	fátt
Plural	fáir	fáar	fá

Fár leans negative — it's "few" with the implication "not many, regrettably few." In the plural it counts people and things; in the singular it has a slightly literary "scarcely any" flavour.

Fáir vissu hvað var raunverulega í gangi.

Few people knew what was really going on. — masculine plural 'fáir' standing alone for 'few people'.

Fáar konur sóttu um þessa stöðu.

Few women applied for this position. — feminine plural 'fáar', agreeing with feminine 'konur'.

Hann er maður fár og dulur.

He is a man of few words and reserved. — singular 'fár' in a more literary, characterising use.

fátt and margt: the neuter as a standalone pronoun

This is the most useful trick on the page. The neuter singular forms — margt ("many") and fátt ("few") — can stand alone, with no noun, meaning "many things" and "few things." The neuter does duty as a generic "thing(s)," so the adjective becomes a pronoun. This is everyday Icelandic, not a literary flourish.

Það er margt sem ég vil segja en kem ekki orðum að.

There's a lot I want to say but can't put into words. — 'margt' standing alone = 'many things, a lot'; the neuter singular as a pronoun.

Mér finnst fátt leiðinlegra en að bíða í röð.

I find few things more boring than waiting in a queue. — 'fátt' = 'few things'; the neuter as a standalone pronoun.

Margt smátt gerir eitt stórt.

Many little things make one big thing (= every little helps). — the proverb shows 'margt' as a standalone neuter, 'many small things'.

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The neuters margt ('many things') and fátt ('few things') stand alone as pronouns — no noun needed. Margt er líkt með skyldum ('relatives have much in common'). Don't confuse fátt ('few things', countable) with lítið ('little', a small amount of mass/uncountable): fátt að gera = 'few things to do'; lítið að gera = 'little to do'.

ýmis: 'various', 'sundry'

Ýmis ("various, sundry, all sorts of") is a quantity adjective that picks out a diverse, unspecified plurality. Its stem syncopates when an ending follows, so the plural forms are ýmsir (masc.), ýmsar (fem.), ýmis (neut.) — note the disappearing i: not \ýmisir but ýmsir*. It nearly always appears in the plural ("various X").

Það eru ýmsir möguleikar í stöðunni.

There are various possibilities in this situation. — masculine plural 'ýmsir' (stem syncopates: ýmis → ýms-), agreeing with masculine 'möguleikar'.

Hún hefur reynt ýmsar leiðir til að ná sambandi.

She has tried various ways to get in touch. — feminine plural 'ýmsar', agreeing with feminine 'leiðir'.

allnokkur: 'quite a few', 'a fair amount'

Allnokkur ("quite a few, a fair number/amount") is the intensified cousin of nokkur ("some") — the prefix all- ("quite, rather") strengthens it. It declines like nokkur and agrees with its noun. It's a useful middle term between "some" and "many."

Það kom allnokkur fjöldi á fundinn þrátt fyrir veðrið.

Quite a few people came to the meeting despite the weather. — 'allnokkur' agreeing with masculine 'fjöldi'.

Við höfum þegar eytt allnokkrum tíma í þetta.

We've already spent a fair amount of time on this. — 'allnokkrum', dative, agreeing with masculine 'tíma' after the verb.

Why this is hard for English speakers

The whole difficulty is one mental switch: in English, many, few, various are invariable function words that never agree with anything. In Icelandic they are adjectives, full stop — they take gender, number, and case endings like any other adjective, and two of them (margur, mörg, margt; fár, fá, fátt) shuffle their stem vowel on top. The learner's instinct is to treat margur as a fixed tag and bolt it onto the noun unchanged; the result, *margur konur for "many women," is immediately wrong (it must be margar konur). Two further pieces have no clean English parallel: the distributive singular margur maður ("many a man," picking out individuals), which English only preserves in the fossil "many a ―"; and the neuter-as-pronoun margt / fátt ("many things / few things"), where English must add the word "things." Once you accept that these are agreeing adjectives, not English-style quantifier words, the rest follows from ordinary adjective grammar.

Common Mistakes

❌ Það voru margur konur á fundinum.

Agreement error — 'margur' is masculine singular; with feminine plural 'konur' it must be 'margar'.

✅ Það voru margar konur á fundinum.

There were many women at the meeting. — feminine plural 'margar'.

The classic transfer error: leaving margur uninflected as if it were English "many." It must agree.

❌ Ég á marg hús.

Form error — the neuter plural of 'margur' has u-umlaut: 'mörg', not '*marg'.

✅ Ég á mörg hús.

I own many houses. — neuter plural 'mörg' (u-umlaut).

❌ Það er lítið sem ég vil segja.

Wrong quantifier (if you mean 'few things') — 'lítið' is 'little, a small amount' (mass); for 'few [separate] things' use the countable neuter 'fátt'.

✅ Það er fátt sem ég vil segja.

There are few things I want to say. — countable 'fátt' = 'few things'; reserve 'lítið' for uncountable 'little'.

Fátt counts discrete things; lítið measures an uncountable amount. "Few things to do" = fátt að gera; "little to do (not much activity)" = lítið að gera.

❌ Það eru ýmisir kostir við þetta.

Form error — the plural of 'ýmis' syncopates the stem: 'ýmsir', not '*ýmisir'.

✅ Það eru ýmsir kostir við þetta.

There are various advantages to this. — masculine plural 'ýmsir'.

❌ Margt menn héldu þetta.

Number/agreement error — 'margt' is the neuter singular ('many things'); for 'many men' use the masculine plural 'margir'.

✅ Margir menn héldu þetta.

Many men thought this. — masculine plural 'margir'.

Key Takeaways

margur ("many"), fár ("few"), ýmis ("various"), allnokkur ("quite a few") are agreeing adjectives, not invariable like English — they take gender, number, and case.
margur has u-umlaut: masculine margur, feminine mörg, neuter singular margt, plural margir / margar / mörg. Its comparison is suppletive: fleiri ("more"), flestir ("most").
fár mirrors it, leaning negative: fár / fá / fátt, plural fáir / fáar / fá.
The distributive singular margur maður = "many a man" (individuals, one by one); a slightly literary use English keeps only in "many a ―."
The neuter as pronoun: margt = "many things," fátt = "few things," standing alone with no noun. Don't confuse fátt (countable "few things") with lítið (uncountable "little").
ýmis syncopates its stem in the plural: ýmsir / ýmsar, not \ýmisir*.

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