In English, the little words in front of a noun — a, the, this, that, some, any, every, no, my — sit there unchanged no matter what noun follows. Icelandic fills the same slots, but almost everything in them declines: it agrees with its noun in gender, number, and case, just as adjectives do. This page is a map, not a manual. It shows you which words live in the determiner system, how they behave as a group, and where the system differs from English so sharply that you have to retrain your instincts. The detailed paradigms live on the individual pages; here we orient.
Two facts that reshape your expectations
Before the inventory, two structural facts about Icelandic that English never prepares you for.
First: there is no indefinite article. Icelandic has no word for "a/an." A bare singular noun is the indefinite. Bók means "a book," maður means "a man." You do not put anything in front.
Ég sá mann á götunni.
I saw a man in the street. (bare 'mann' = 'a man' — no article)
Hún á hund og kött.
She has a dog and a cat. (bare nouns; nothing for 'a')
Second: the definite article is a suffix, not a separate word. Where English puts "the" in front, Icelandic glues -inn / -in / -ið (and their case forms) onto the end of the noun. Maður "a man" → maðurinn "the man." This is covered in full under Nouns; mentioned here only so you understand why "the" is missing from the determiner list below — it is not a determiner word at all, it is an ending.
Maðurinn á götunni var pabbi minn.
The man in the street was my dad. (definiteness shown by the suffix -inn)
The members of the system
Everything English does with a front-of-noun determiner, Icelandic does with one of the following declined words. This is the inventory you are building toward — each has its own page.
| Type | Members | English slot |
|---|---|---|
| Demonstratives | þessi, sá | this / that |
| Universal | allur, hver, sérhver | all / every / each |
| Negative | enginn | no / none |
| Existential / partitive | nokkur, einhver, sumur | some / any |
| Quantity | margur, fár | many / few |
| Determiner-numeral | einn | one / a certain |
| Possessives | minn, þinn, sinn, … | my / your / his(own) |
Here is one of each, sitting in front of its noun and already agreeing with it. Read these as a sampler of the whole system in action.
Þessi bók er frábær.
This book is great. (þessi = 'this', feminine to match bók)
Sá maður veit ekki hvað hann er að segja.
That man doesn't know what he's saying. (sá = 'that', masculine)
Allir menn eru jafnir.
All men are equal. (allir = 'all', masculine plural)
Það er enginn vandi.
That's no problem. (enginn = 'no/none', masculine to match vandi)
Notice that the determiner changes shape according to the noun: þessi before feminine bók, sá before masculine maður, allir before the masculine plural menn, enginn before masculine vandi. None of them is a fixed word the way English "this/that/all/no" are.
Most of them decline like strong adjectives
Here is the insight that turns a long memorisation list into a single rule. The majority of determiners take the strong adjective endings — the same endings you meet when an adjective stands without a definite article (góður, góð, gott …). So once you know the strong adjective declension, you have, for free, the bulk of the determiner system. Allur, sumur, margur, nokkur, einn and the possessives all follow this template.
| Masc. | Fem. | Neut. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. sg. | allur | öll | allt |
| Acc. sg. | allan | alla | allt |
| Dat. sg. | öllum | allri | öllu |
| Nom. pl. | allir | allar | öll |
If you compare this to a strong adjective like gulur "yellow" (gulur, gul, gult; gulan, gula, gult; …), the endings line up. The pattern is the asset: learn the strong endings once, and allur costs you almost nothing extra.
Ég borðaði allan ísinn.
I ate all the ice cream. (allan = masc. acc. sg., agreeing with ísinn)
Hún talaði við alla gestina.
She talked to all the guests. (alla = masc. acc. pl.)
A few are irregular and must be learned on their own
Honesty matters here: the strong-adjective shortcut does not cover everyone. Sá (that), hver (who/which/every), and enginn (no/none) have their own irregular paradigms with forms you cannot derive from the adjective template. Sá in particular is suppletive — its feminine is sú and its neuter is það (yes, the same word as "it"). These three you simply learn as separate items.
Sú kona vinnur hér.
That woman works here. (sú = feminine of sá — not *sá kona)
Hver á þennan bíl?
Whose is this car? / Who owns this car? (hver, irregular)
Það er ekkert eftir.
There's nothing left. (ekkert = neuter of enginn — irregular)
Two orthographic traps that come with the whole class
Because determiners decline by gender, two regular sound-changes hit them constantly, and English speakers routinely drop them.
U-umlaut. When the ending contains -u- (or the feminine/neuter-plural is endingless after a stem a), a stem a becomes ö. So allur has feminine öll, dative plural öllum; margur "many" has feminine mörg, neuter plural mörg. The a → ö shift is not optional decoration — all and öll are the same word, and writing all for the feminine is an error.
Margar konur komu, en fáir karlar.
Many women came, but few men. (margar f.pl. — and note mörg/margra elsewhere)
Öll börnin sofa.
All the children are asleep. (öll = neuter pl. of allur, with u-umlaut a → ö)
The neuter -t. The neuter singular of these words very often ends in -t, and with a stem-final -l- or -n- it can double or assimilate: allur → allt, enginn → ekkert. Treat the neuter as its own form to memorise rather than something you build by adding -t mechanically.
Allt í lagi!
All good! / It's fine! (allt = neuter of allur, a fixed everyday phrase)
Where determiners sit, and stacking
Like adjectives, determiners come before the noun. Unlike English, you generally do not combine a front determiner with the suffixed definite article on the same noun in the simplest cases — a demonstrative or possessive already makes the phrase definite. (The interaction of determiners with the suffixed article, and the resulting choice between strong and weak adjective endings, is a topic in its own right; this page only flags that the interaction exists.) The practical takeaway for now: a determiner agrees with its noun, and an adjective inside the same phrase agrees too.
Þessir gömlu vinir mínir búa í Reykjavík.
These old friends of mine live in Reykjavík. (þessir + gömlu + mínir all agree with the masc. pl. noun)
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég sá einn mann á götunni. (meaning 'a man')
Misleading — 'einn' here sounds like 'one man' (counting). For plain 'a man', use the bare noun.
✅ Ég sá mann á götunni.
I saw a man in the street. (bare noun = 'a man')
Do not reach for einn as a routine "a/an"; the bare noun already means "a." (When einn genuinely means "a certain," it is fine — see the einn page.)
❌ Þessi maður og þessi kona. (using 'þessi' unchanged for both)
Half-right — 'þessi' happens to fit both here, but learners often leave determiners uninflected everywhere.
✅ Allur maturinn og öll mjólkin.
All the food and all the milk. (allur masc. → öll fem. — the determiner must change form)
Determiners are not fixed words; they agree with the noun's gender, number, and case.
❌ Sá kona vinnur hér.
Incorrect — the feminine of 'sá' is suppletive: 'sú'.
✅ Sú kona vinnur hér.
That woman works here.
Sá is one of the irregular three; its feminine is sú, its neuter það. You cannot derive it from the adjective endings.
❌ All börnin sofa.
Incorrect — the neuter plural of 'allur' takes u-umlaut: 'öll'.
✅ Öll börnin sofa.
All the children are asleep.
Don't skip the a → ö umlaut. All is not a valid form; the feminine/neuter-plural is öll.
❌ Ég á a bók.
Incorrect — Icelandic has no indefinite article; 'a' is no word at all.
✅ Ég á bók.
I have a book.
There is no word for "a/an." The bare noun carries the indefinite meaning by itself.
Key Takeaways
- Icelandic has no indefinite article (bare noun = "a"), and the definite article is a suffix (-inn/-in/-ið), not a determiner word.
- The determiner slots are filled by declined words: demonstratives þessi, sá; quantifiers allur, hver, enginn, nokkur, sumur, margur; the numeral-determiner einn; and the possessives.
- Most determiners decline like strong adjectives, so the strong endings unlock the bulk of the system in one move.
- Sá, hver, and enginn are irregular and must be learned separately (sá/sú/það, enginn/ekkert).
- Watch the class-wide traps: u-umlaut (allur → öll, margur → mörg) and the neuter -t (allt, ekkert).
Now practice Icelandic
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Demonstratives: þessi and sáA2 — Iceland's two demonstratives — proximal þessi 'this' and distal/anaphoric sá 'that, the one' — both fully declined for gender, number and case, the famous neuter það that doubles as 'it', and the weak adjective they trigger.
- Possessive Pronouns: minn, þinn, sinn and hans/hennarA2 — Icelandic's split possessive system — the agreeing, postposed possessives minn, þinn and sinn that decline like adjectives, versus the frozen genitives hans, hennar, þeirra, okkar, ykkar that never change.