English uses one word, here, for both "I am here" and "come here", and one word, home, for both "I am home" and "I'm going home". Icelandic refuses to merge them: it keeps being in a place strictly separate from moving toward a place. This page gives you the handful of everyday place adverbs you need from day one — hér, þar/þarna, heima, heim, hingað — and drills the one distinction that will otherwise produce an immediate, audible error every time you try to say "come here" or "go home". The full three-way system (location / toward / from) is on Directional Triads; here we take just the slice an A1 learner needs.
hér and þar/þarna: where things are
For saying where something is located — standing still, sitting, being — you use hér ('here') and þar or þarna ('there'). These are the static, "location" words. They answer the question hvar? ('where?').
Ég er hér.
I am here. — hér = the location 'here', used with the verb 'to be'.
Hann er þarna.
He is over there. — þarna points to a visible spot, 'there' that you can gesture at.
Bókin er hér á borðinu.
The book is here on the table. — static location, so hér.
The pair þar and þarna are close cousins. þarna is the more pointing, "look, over there" version — you often say it while gesturing at something you can see. þar is the more neutral 'there', and it is also the one you use to refer back to a place already mentioned ("we went to the lake; there it was cold").
Sjáðu, kötturinn er þarna uppi!
Look, the cat is up there! — þarna, pointing at a spot in view.
Við fórum til Akureyrar. Þar var kalt.
We went to Akureyri. It was cold there. — þar refers back to the place just named.
komdu hingað: "come here" needs the motion form
Here is the error English speakers make on day one. To tell someone to come here, you must not say komdu hér — because hér means the place you already are, and "come" is motion toward a goal. The goal-of-motion form of 'here' is hingað. So "come here!" is Komdu hingað!
Komdu hingað!
Come here! — motion toward the speaker → hingað, NOT hér. This is the single most important phrase on the page.
Komdu hingað og sjáðu þetta.
Come here and look at this. — hingað because 'come' is motion toward 'here'.
Ég ætla að flytja hingað.
I'm going to move here. — 'move (to) here' is motion toward → hingað.
The mirror image of hingað is the motion-toward-'there' form, which you will also use constantly: þangað ('to there, thither').
Hvernig kemst ég þangað?
How do I get there? — 'get to there' is motion toward → þangað, not þar.
So you now have two mini-pairs to hold in mind: hér (be here) vs hingað (to here), and þar/þarna (be there) vs þangað (to there). English says here and there for all four.
heima and heim: at-home versus homeward
The home pair is the highest-frequency place where this distinction bites, and it has its own special words rather than reusing hér/hingað. heima means 'at home' — the static, located sense. heim means 'home(ward)' — motion toward home. They are not interchangeable, and English's single word home hides the split.
| Word | Sense | Question | Typical verb |
|---|---|---|---|
| heima | at home (location) | hvar? (where?) | vera (to be), búa (to live) |
| heim | home(ward) (motion toward) | hvert? (where to?) | fara (to go), koma (to come) |
Ég er heima.
I am (at) home. — location → heima.
Ég fer heim.
I'm going home. — motion toward home → heim, NOT heima.
Ertu heima í kvöld?
Are you (at) home tonight? — 'to be' + location → heima.
Ég kem heim klukkan sex.
I'll come home at six o'clock. — 'come' is motion → heim.
Hún vinnur heima á þriðjudögum.
She works from home on Tuesdays. — 'work' happens AT home (location) → heima.
The mnemonic that sticks: heima has the extra -a, and that extra letter is your "anchor" — it pins you in place, at home. Drop the -a to get heim, and you are set in motion, toward home. If the sentence has a movement verb (go, come, drive, run), reach for heim; if it has a being/staying verb (be, live, work, sleep), reach for heima.
A note on the question words
Since these adverbs answer questions, it helps to see the questions that pair with them, even at A1. Hvar? ('where?') asks for a location and is answered by hér / þar / heima. Hvert? ('where to?') asks for a goal and is answered by hingað / þangað / heim. Matching the question word to the right answer-type is the same location-versus-motion logic in another guise.
Hvar ertu? — Ég er heima.
Where are you? — I'm at home. (location: hvar → heima)
Hvert ertu að fara? — Ég er að fara heim.
Where are you going? — I'm going home. (goal: hvert → heim)
Common Mistakes
❌ Komdu hér!
Incorrect — 'come' is motion toward a goal, so it needs the goal form: Komdu hingað!
✅ Komdu hingað!
Come here!
❌ Ég fer heima.
Incorrect — 'go' is motion toward home, which is heim, not the static heima.
✅ Ég fer heim.
I'm going home.
❌ Ég er heim.
Incorrect — 'to be' marks location, so it needs the static form heima.
✅ Ég er heima.
I am (at) home.
❌ Hvernig kemst ég þar?
Incorrect — 'get to there' is motion toward a goal, so use þangað, not the static þar.
✅ Hvernig kemst ég þangað?
How do I get there?
❌ Hann er hingað.
Incorrect — hingað is the motion-toward form; for 'he is here' (location) use hér.
✅ Hann er hér.
He is here.
Key Takeaways
- Icelandic splits location from motion toward: where English says here, Icelandic distinguishes hér (be here) from hingað (to here).
- The same split gives þar/þarna (be there) versus þangað (to there).
- The home pair is the highest-stakes case: heima = 'at home' (location), heim = 'home(ward)' (motion). The extra -a anchors you in place.
- Being/staying verbs (vera, búa, vinna) take the static forms; motion verbs (fara, koma) take the goal forms.
- "Come here!" is Komdu hingað! — never komdu hér. Drill this phrase until it is automatic.
Now practice Icelandic
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Adverbs of PlaceA2 — The everyday place adverbs — hér, þar, þarna, úti/inni, uppi/niðri, frammi — and the high-frequency heima/heim contrast, built around Icelandic's split between being somewhere and moving toward it.
- The Imperative and CommandsA2 — How to give orders, requests, and instructions — the bare-stem imperative, the everyday spoken -ðu/-du/-tu clitic that fuses the pronoun þú (komdu, farðu, gefðu), the plural/polite form built on the 2pl (komið, talið), the 'let's' förum, and softeners like nú and vinsamlegast.