Concession is a rhetorical move before it is a grammatical one: you grant something to the other side — yes, it's expensive — precisely so you can then push back — but it's worth it. Icelandic has a dedicated kit for this, built around one central construction, að vísu X, en Y ("admittedly X, but Y"), plus a set of standalone markers (engu að síður, þrátt fyrir það, samt, þó) that carry the counter-move. This page is about concession at the discourse level — which marker, where it sits, what it concedes. It is the natural companion to the contrast markers (hins vegar, aftur á móti), which we cross-link rather than repeat.
(Concessive subordinate clauses with the subjunctive — þó að hann sé ríkur…, þótt það rigni… — belong to the Verbs section under subjunctive conjunctions. Here we stay at the discourse level. And note the word-class split covered on the contrast page: the adverb þó "however/still" is a different word from the conjunction þó að "although"; this page uses only the adverb.)
The core move: að vísu X, en Y
The single most important concessive construction in Icelandic is the frame að vísu … en — literally "to be sure / admittedly … but." It is the standard, idiomatic way to concede a point before countering it, and it structures a huge amount of careful argument and balanced opinion. The logic is two-step:
- að vísu + the conceded point — you grant what the other side would say.
- en + your counter — you overturn it with what you actually want to claim.
The rhetorical effect is generous and persuasive: by conceding first, you sound fair-minded and pre-empt the objection; the en then lands your real point with the obstacle already cleared.
Að vísu er þetta dýrt, en það er þess virði.
Admittedly this is expensive, but it's worth it. (the core concede-then-counter frame: að vísu grants the cost, en delivers the verdict)
Þetta er að vísu löng leið, en útsýnið bætir það upp.
This is admittedly a long way, but the view makes up for it. (að vísu sits mid-clause here; en carries the counter)
Hún er að vísu ung, en hún hefur mikla reynslu.
She's admittedly young, but she has a lot of experience. (concede the youth, counter with the experience)
Note the word order. When að vísu is fronted to the head of the clause, it is an adverbial in the prefield, so (Icelandic being verb-second) the verb inverts: Að vísu *er þetta dýrt, not *Að vísu þetta er. When að vísu sits inside the clause (after the verb, as in Þetta er að vísu löng leið), no inversion is involved — it just colours the clause it's in. Both positions are common and natural.
A near-synonym frame is vissulega … en ("certainly… but"), a touch more emphatic in the concession: vissulega ("certainly, indeed") concedes more strongly than the cooler að vísu, then en counters. Use vissulega when you want to grant the point wholeheartedly before turning it.
Vissulega er verkefnið krefjandi, en það er einmitt þess vegna sem það er spennandi.
It's certainly a demanding project, but that's exactly why it's exciting. (vissulega concedes strongly; en + a cleft counter)
Vissulega höfum við gert mistök, en við höfum líka lært af þeim.
We've certainly made mistakes, but we've also learned from them. (vissulega … en)
The standalone counters: engu að síður, þrátt fyrir það
Sometimes the conceded point stands as its own sentence, and the counter follows in a new sentence headed by a concessive marker. The two heavyweights here are engu að síður and þrátt fyrir það — both meaning, roughly, "nonetheless / despite that," and both pointing back to the whole preceding situation. (They also appear on the contrast page; here we see them specifically doing concessive counter-work.)
- engu að síður ("nonetheless," literally "none the less") is the (formal), written-register counter. It concedes the prior point implicitly and presses on.
- þrátt fyrir það ("despite that") points back to the entire preceding situation as the obstacle being overridden.
Both are adverbials, so fronting them inverts the verb.
Verkefnið fór fram úr áætlun. Engu að síður tókst að ljúka því á réttum tíma.
The project went over budget. Nonetheless, it was completed on time. (concession in sentence one, engu að síður counters; fronted → 'tókst að')
Hann hafði enga reynslu. Þrátt fyrir það fékk hann starfið.
He had no experience. Despite that, he got the job. (þrátt fyrir það points back; fronted → 'fékk hann')
samt: the everyday counter, and its love of the end slot
In speech and informal writing, the workhorse concessive counter is samt ("still, anyway, nonetheless"). It does the same job as engu að síður but is fully everyday, and it has a characteristic habit English lacks: it loves the end of the clause. You concede, then tack samt onto the end of your counter.
Það var rigning allan daginn. Við fórum í gönguna samt.
It rained all day. We went on the hike anyway. (samt at the end of the counter clause — no inversion when end-placed)
Hann sagðist ekki vera svangur en borðaði samt heilan disk.
He said he wasn't hungry but ate a whole plate anyway. (samt end-clause, the colloquial counter)
Þetta er dýrt. Samt ætla ég að kaupa það.
This is expensive. Still, I'm going to buy it. (fronted samt → V2: 'ætla ég')
Notice the position flexibility: end-placed samt (the most colloquial, most common spot) needs no inversion; fronted samt (Samt ætla ég…) inverts the verb like any prefield adverbial. The fuller samt sem áður ("nevertheless," literally "still as before") is a touch more emphatic and slightly more formal.
þó as a standalone adverb: "though"
The adverb þó ("however, though, nonetheless") is the other everyday concessive counter, and — exactly like the English clause-final "though" — it loves the end of a clause: Þetta er dýrt; ég kaupi það *þó* ("This is expensive; I'll buy it though"). Fronted, it inverts. (The full treatment of þó the adverb versus þó að the conjunction lives on the contrast page; the one thing to carry here is that this þó, the bare adverb, is a concessive counter, and it is not followed by a clause of its own.)
Veðrið var leiðinlegt. Ferðin var skemmtileg þó.
The weather was miserable. The trip was fun though. (adverb þó, clause-final concessive counter)
Þó er rétt að taka fram að ekki eru allir sammála.
It is, though, fair to note that not everyone agrees. (fronted adverb þó → V2: 'er')
How concessives manage an argument
Step back from the individual markers and look at what they do to a piece of reasoning. A concessive marker is a politeness and persuasion device: it signals to your reader that you have seen the opposing point and are dealing with it, not ignoring it. This makes your argument feel honest and pre-empts the objection — the reader can't fire back "but it's expensive!" because you've already said að vísu er þetta dýrt and answered it. The structure is always the same shape:
CONCEDE (the opponent's valid point) → COUNTER (your stronger point that overrides it).
The markers just label the two halves. Að vísu / vissulega flag the concession; en / engu að síður / þrátt fyrir það / samt / þó flag the counter. Master the að vísu … en frame and you have the spine of balanced, persuasive Icelandic argument.
| Role | Markers | Register |
|---|---|---|
| CONCEDE the point | að vísu (admittedly), vissulega (certainly) | neutral → formal |
| COUNTER, in the same sentence | en (but) | neutral, everyday |
| COUNTER, new sentence (formal) | engu að síður, þrátt fyrir það | (formal), written |
| COUNTER, new sentence (everyday) | samt (sem áður), þó | (informal) → neutral |
English vs Icelandic
Two frictions stand out. First, English has no single marker as central as að vísu; it spreads the concession across "admittedly," "to be sure," "granted," "it's true that," and a comma-spliced "though." Icelandic concentrates the move into the tidy að vísu … en frame, which an English speaker has to consciously reach for rather than translate word-for-word. Second, the inversion: English keeps the subject first after "nonetheless" and "despite that" ("Nonetheless, he got the job"), but every Icelandic counter-marker, when fronted, throws the verb to second position (Engu að síður *fékk hann…, Þrátt fyrir það fékk hann…). And the everyday *samt and þó sit at the clause end far more readily than English allows for a full "nevertheless." So: learn the að vísu … en frame as a unit, and remember the V2 inversion on every fronted counter.
Common Mistakes
❌ Þó það er dýrt, ég kaupi það samt.
Wrong word class — the bare þó can't introduce an 'although' clause; that needs the conjunction þó að/þótt with the subjunctive. (And no V2 in the second clause.)
✅ Það er að vísu dýrt, en ég kaupi það samt.
It's admittedly expensive, but I'll buy it anyway. (concede with að vísu, counter with en + end-clause samt)
Don't press the adverb þó into service as a conjunction. To concede in argument, the clean tool is að vísu … en; for an "although" clause you need þó að / þótt + subjunctive (a different word — see the contrast page).
❌ Að vísu þetta er dýrt, en það er þess virði.
No V2 — fronted að vísu must invert the verb (er þetta), not leave the subject first.
✅ Að vísu er þetta dýrt, en það er þess virði.
Admittedly this is expensive, but it's worth it. (fronted að vísu → V2: er þetta)
When að vísu opens the clause, the verb comes second: Að vísu *er þetta…*. The English subject-first "Admittedly, this is…" is the calque to avoid.
❌ Þetta er dýrt. En það er þess virði samt sem áður.
Concession frame broken — you can't open a sentence with the conceding 'en' alone here; the concession needs marking, and the markers are misplaced.
✅ Þetta er að vísu dýrt, en það er þess virði.
This is admittedly expensive, but it's worth it. (mark the concession with að vísu; keep en as the in-sentence counter)
The en is the counter, not the concession. Mark the conceded point with að vísu (or vissulega); don't leave the concession unsignalled and try to carry everything on en.
❌ Engu að síður hann fékk starfið.
No V2 — engu að síður is a fronted adverbial, so the verb inverts (fékk hann).
✅ Engu að síður fékk hann starfið.
Nonetheless, he got the job. (fronted engu að síður → V2: fékk hann)
The formal counters engu að síður and þrátt fyrir það invert the verb when fronted, exactly like every other prefield adverbial.
Key Takeaways
- The central concessive construction is að vísu X, en Y ("admittedly X, but Y") — concede the opponent's point, then overturn it with en. vissulega … en is the more emphatic variant.
- The move is always CONCEDE → COUNTER: að vísu / vissulega mark the concession; en / engu að síður / þrátt fyrir það / samt / þó mark the counter.
- engu að síður and þrátt fyrir það are the (formal) standalone counters; samt and the adverb þó are the everyday ones, and both love the clause-final slot.
- Fronting any counter-marker triggers V2 — the verb comes before the subject (Engu að síður *fékk hann…*).
- The adverb þó here is not the conjunction þó að — keep them apart (see the contrast page).
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- Contrast and Concession MarkersB1 — The Icelandic markers of contrast and concession — hins vegar, aftur á móti, samt (sem áður), engu að síður, þrátt fyrir — and especially the adverb þó 'however' versus the conjunction þó að 'although', a frequent confusion, with the inversion effects of fronting each.
- Subjunctive After Conjunctions (þótt, svo að, áður en)B2 — The subordinating conjunctions that govern the subjunctive: concessive þótt / þó að 'although' (þótt hann sé ríkur), purpose svo að / til þess að 'so that' (svo að þú skiljir), conditional nema 'unless' (nema þú komir), and áður en 'before' in some uses. These clauses take the subjunctive because their content is NOT asserted as fact. Includes the meaning-bearing contrast svo að + subjunctive (purpose) vs svo að + indicative (result), and the subtle trap of þó (sentence adverb 'however') versus þó að / þótt (concessive conjunction).
- Conditional and Concessive ConjunctionsB1 — The subordinators that set up conditions and concessions, and the moods they pull in: ef 'if', nema 'unless', svo framarlega sem 'as long as', þótt / þó að 'although', enda þótt 'even though', and hvort sem … eða 'whether … or'. Conditional ef must not be confused with interrogative hvort 'whether' — English 'if' covers both — and concessive þótt normally takes the subjunctive.
- V2: The Verb-Second RuleA2 — The foundational rule of Icelandic main clauses — the finite verb is always the SECOND constituent, so fronting anything other than the subject forces verb-subject inversion (Í dag fer ég, Þetta veit ég ekki), unlike English which keeps the subject first.
- Sentence Adverbs and Modal ParticlesB2 — Adverbs that comment on a whole clause rather than a single word — kannski 'maybe', líklega/sennilega 'probably', auðvitað 'of course', greinilega 'evidently', vonandi 'hopefully', and the fixed phrases því miður 'unfortunately' and sem betur fer 'fortunately'. The key syntactic fact: fronting one of these triggers V2 inversion (kannski kemur hann 'maybe he's coming'), so the verb jumps ahead of the subject — the one error English speakers make every time.
- Discourse Markers: Structuring Talk and TextB1 — A map of the connectives that organise Icelandic above the sentence — additive (auk þess, einnig, líka), contrastive (hins vegar, samt), causal (þess vegna, því), sequencing (fyrst, síðan, að lokum), and reformulating (sem sagt) — and the central fact that most are adverbs, so fronting them triggers V2 verb-subject inversion.