Conditionals in Depth and Mixed Types

The B1 conditionals page gave you the three core types: real/open (ef + indicative), present counterfactual (ef + past subjunctive), and past counterfactual (ef + hefði + supine). That is the backbone. This page adds the constructions that an educated native uses constantly but textbooks skip: inverted conditionals that drop ef entirely, mixed-time conditionals that cross the condition and result across different times, the ef … þá correlative, and concessive conditionals with jafnvel þótt. The good news for English speakers is that one of these — the inverted conditional — has a direct English parallel, so your intuition partly transfers. (For the three basic types and the myndi auxiliary, see verbs/subjunctive-conditionals and verbs/myndi-conditional. Here we build on them.)

Inverted conditionals: dropping ef, fronting the verb

Icelandic can form a conditional without the conjunction ef at all, by fronting the finite subjunctive verb to the very front of the clause. Hefði ég vitað þetta… is not "would I have known this" — it is "Had I known this…", a condition. The verb-first order is the "if".

This is the most important construction on the page, and the one English makes easy, because English does exactly the same thing: "Had I known", "Were I you", "Should you need anything". The marked, slightly formal English inversion maps one-to-one onto the Icelandic. So the leap is small — you are learning a familiar move with new vocabulary.

The verbs that lead an inverted conditional are exactly the high-frequency past subjunctives: Hefði (had), Væri (were), Ætti (had/possessed), Gæti (could), Myndi (would). The construction is fully productive but does carry a slightly elevated, literary, or rhetorical register; in casual speech, ef ég hefði vitað is more common, while hefði ég vitað feels weightier — which is also true of English "had I known" versus "if I'd known".

Why does fronting the verb signal a condition? Because Icelandic clauses are V2: the prefield holds one constituent and the verb stands second. When you front nothing (empty prefield) and the verb leads, you get a yes/no question intonation pattern — and a conditional is, historically and intuitively, an unanswered yes/no question offered for the sake of argument: "Had I known? — then I'd never have gone." The inverted conditional and the yes/no question share a shape for exactly this reason.

Mixed-time conditionals: past condition, present result

The textbook types pair like with like — present-unreal condition with present-unreal result, past with past. But reality is often mixed: a condition about the past whose consequence is felt in the present, or vice versa. Icelandic handles this by using the tense appropriate to each clause independently — hefði + supine for the past part, past subjunctive (or myndi) for the present part.

The commonest mix is past condition → present result: "If I had studied more (in the past), I would be a doctor (now)."

The mirror mix — present condition → past result — is rarer but occurs: a standing trait whose past consequence you reflect on.

The point is liberating: you do not have to match the two clauses to the same conditional type. Choose hefði + supine wherever the meaning is past and done, and the bare past subjunctive (or myndi) wherever the meaning is present and ongoing — clause by clause, independently. English does the same ("if I had studied, I would be…"), so once again the intuition transfers.

The ef … þá correlative

In a longer or heavier conditional, Icelandic often marks the boundary between condition and result with the correlative þá "then" at the head of the result clause. Ef opens the condition; þá opens the result. The þá is optional with short conditionals but very natural — and clarifying — when the ef-clause runs long.

Because the fronted ef-clause fills the prefield, the result clause is V2, and þá itself can occupy the prefield, putting the verb right after it.

Note that þá and the verb compete for the V2 slot: after þá, the verb stands next (þá látum við), exactly as after any fronted adverb. (Correlatives are covered more broadly in conjunctions/conditional-concessive.)

Concessive conditionals: jafnvel þótt and þó svo að

A concessive conditional says the result holds regardless of the condition — "even if it rains, we're going". Icelandic builds these with jafnvel þótt "even though / even if", þótt alone, or þó svo að "even if", and — because concession is inherently non-asserted (you grant the condition hypothetically) — the concessive clause takes the subjunctive.

The difference from an ordinary conditional is meaning, not just form: a plain conditional makes the result depend on the condition; a concessive conditional makes the result independent of it — the condition is conceded only to be overridden. (For þótt in clause-linking generally, see complex/clause-linking; for the conjunction inventory, conjunctions/conditional-concessive.)

Why this is mostly easy — and where it bites

The reassuring theme is transfer: English shares the inverted conditional ("had I known"), mixed-time conditionals ("if I had studied, I'd be…"), and the "even if" concessive. So your English intuition is a reliable guide to when to use each. The trouble is morphology and word order, not the concepts:

1. English speakers under-use the inverted conditional because the English version feels formal and they forget it transfers — so they over-rely on ef. Both are correct, but the inversion is a register tool worth having.
2. The inverted conditional fronts the verb, so the subject follows it (Hefði *ég*, not *Hefði ég with subject first — and certainly not \Ég hefði* leading the clause as a condition). Getting the V2 order right is the real work.
3. Mixed types tempt learners to "match" the two clauses to one type. Resist that: choose each clause's tense by its own time reference.

Common Mistakes

The verb-fronting is the conditioning; adding ef on top is redundant and wrong.

Leaving the subject in front yields a result clause, not a condition; the fronted verb is what makes it conditional.

Match each clause to its own time: past condition with hefði, present result with væri.

Concession grants the condition hypothetically, so the clause is non-asserted → subjunctive.

Key Takeaways

• Inverted conditionals drop ef and front the past-subjunctive verb: Hefði ég…, Væri ég…, Ætti ég… = English "Had I…, Were I…". The subject follows the fronted verb; the result clause stays V2. Register is slightly elevated.
• Mixed-time conditionals pair clauses of different times: past condition (hefði
  • supine) with present result (væri / myndi), or vice versa. Choose each clause's tense independently, by its own time reference.
• The ef … þá correlative marks the result with þá "then", especially when the ef-clause is long; þá fills the prefield, so the verb stands second after it.
• Concessive conditionals (jafnvel þótt, þó svo að, þótt) make the result hold regardless of the condition and take the subjunctive, because the condition is only conceded hypothetically.
• English intuition transfers for all four (inversion, mixed time, "even if"); the real work is Icelandic morphology and V2 word order, not the concepts.