A paragraph is more than a pile of sentences; it has joints. Discourse markers are the words that show those joints — that signal and here's another point, but on the other hand, therefore, first… then… finally, in other words. They live one level above the sentence, knitting clauses into an argument or a narrative. Written Icelandic relies on them heavily for cohesion, far more than casual speech does, and getting them right is a large part of sounding educated rather than choppy. There is also one structural fact that controls almost all of them — and it trips up every English speaker. We'll get to it immediately.
Two neighbouring topics are deliberately not here. True grammatical conjunctions (og, en, því að, að, þegar — the words that join clauses inside one sentence) live on the conjunctions pages. The tone-carrying pragmatic particles (nú, jú, bara, sko) live in Pragmatics. This page is about the adverbial connectives that organise discourse — and that distinction turns out to be the whole game.
The one rule that controls everything: V2 inversion
Icelandic is a verb-second (V2) language: in a main clause, the finite verb sits in the second position, no matter what occupies the first. If the subject comes first, the verb follows it as usual. But if you front anything else — a time word, an object, or a discourse-marker adverb — that fronted element fills slot one, and the verb must come next, before the subject. The subject gets pushed to third position. This is verb-subject inversion.
Because most discourse markers are adverbs, fronting one (which is exactly what you do to mark a joint between sentences) forces inversion. This is the single most common place learners go wrong, because English does not invert: "Therefore I went," "On the other hand it's expensive" keep subject-then-verb. Icelandic flips it.
Þess vegna fór ég snemma heim.
Therefore I went home early. (fronted þess vegna → verb 'fór' before subject 'ég')
Hins vegar er þetta töluvert dýrara.
On the other hand, this is considerably more expensive. (fronted hins vegar → verb 'er' before 'þetta')
Síðan fórum við á safnið.
Then we went to the museum. (fronted síðan → verb 'fórum' before 'við')
Hold these three sentences against their English translations and watch the difference: English keeps "I went / this is / we went," Icelandic produces "went I / is this / went we." Internalise that, and discourse markers stop being a vocabulary problem and become an automatic reflex. (The deep mechanics of V2 are on the V2 word order page; here, just lock in: fronted marker → inversion.)
Additive markers: adding a point
Additive markers signal here's a further point in the same direction: auk þess ("besides, moreover," literally "in addition to that"), einnig ("also," more formal), líka ("too, also," neutral and common), enn fremur ("furthermore," (formal)), þar að auki ("on top of that").
Íbúðin er of dýr. Auk þess er hún allt of lítil.
The flat is too expensive. Besides, it's far too small. (fronted auk þess → 'er' before 'hún')
Hann talar íslensku og einnig dönsku.
He speaks Icelandic and also Danish. (einnig mid-clause, no inversion)
Ég vil fá þetta — og þú líka, ekki satt?
I want this — and you too, right? (líka, neutral and everyday)
Notice the contrast: einnig and líka tucked inside a clause cause no inversion; fronted auk þess does. Position is everything.
Contrastive markers: turning the argument
Contrastive markers pivot the argument the other way: hins vegar ("on the other hand"), aftur á móti ("conversely"), samt / samt sem áður ("still, nevertheless"), þó ("however," an adverb), engu að síður ("nonetheless"). These get a full page of their own — including the notorious þó (adverb) versus þó að (conjunction) trap — but here they show the inversion rule in action.
Hún er ung; hins vegar er hún mjög reynd.
She's young; on the other hand, she's very experienced. (fronted hins vegar → 'er' before 'hún')
Það rigndi allan daginn. Samt sem áður kom hann gangandi.
It rained all day. Nevertheless, he came on foot. (fronted samt sem áður → 'kom' before 'hann')
Causal and consecutive markers: drawing a conclusion
These signal and so / for that reason: þess vegna ("therefore, for that reason"), þar af leiðandi ("consequently," a fixed phrase), því ("therefore, so," when fronted as an adverb), af þeim sökum ("for those reasons," (formal)). All are adverbial, so fronting them inverts.
Veðrið versnaði skyndilega. Þess vegna aflýstum við ferðinni.
The weather suddenly worsened. Therefore we cancelled the trip. (fronted þess vegna → 'aflýstum' before 'við')
Bíllinn bilaði; þar af leiðandi komumst við hvergi.
The car broke down; consequently we couldn't get anywhere. (fronted þar af leiðandi → 'komumst' before 'við')
A caution worth flagging: því is a chameleon. As a fronted adverb it means "therefore" and inverts (Því fór ég "Therefore I went"). But því að is a conjunction meaning "because," and it does not invert the clause it introduces. Keep the consecutive adverb því separate from the causal conjunction því að — that pairing is detailed on the causal-connectives page.
Sequencing markers: ordering steps and events
For narrating steps or events in order, Icelandic uses a tidy set: fyrst ("first"), þá / síðan ("then, next"), næst ("next"), þar næst ("after that"), loks / að lokum / loksins ("finally, at last"). These are the backbone of recipes, instructions, and stories — and being adverbs, fronted ones invert.
Fyrst hitarðu ofninn. Síðan seturðu kökuna inn. Að lokum kælirðu hana.
First you heat the oven. Then you put the cake in. Finally you cool it. (each fronted marker inverts — 'hitarðu', 'seturðu', 'kælirðu')
Fyrst fórum við í sund og þá fengum við okkur ís.
First we went swimming and then we got ice cream. (fronted fyrst → 'fórum'; þá → 'fengum')
Reformulating markers: saying it another way
To restate or summarise, Icelandic has sem sagt ("so, in other words, that is to say"), með öðrum orðum ("in other words," (formal)), það er að segja / þ.e. ("that is, i.e."), í stuttu máli ("in short"). These cue the listener that a clarification or summary is coming.
Hann mætti aldrei á fundi. Sem sagt, hann var rekinn.
He never showed up to meetings. In other words, he got fired. (sem sagt set off by a comma as a parenthetical — it sits outside the V2 count, so no inversion: 'hann var')
Með öðrum orðum þurfum við að byrja upp á nýtt.
In other words, we have to start over. (fronted með öðrum orðum → 'þurfum' before 'við')
English vs Icelandic: cohesion and inversion
Two differences matter. First, register weight: English writing tolerates a lot of plain "and… but… so…", but good written Icelandic expects the richer markers — auk þess, hins vegar, þess vegna, að lokum — to carry cohesion. Leaning on og and en where a real discourse marker belongs reads as thin and childish in writing. Second, and more mechanically, inversion: English fronts these markers and keeps subject-verb order ("Therefore I went"); Icelandic fronts them and inverts ("Þess vegna fór ég"). The first difference is about choosing the right marker; the second is about wiring it correctly. Both are needed to write cohesive Icelandic.
Common Mistakes
❌ Þess vegna ég fór snemma heim.
No inversion — a fronted adverb must be followed by the verb (V2).
✅ Þess vegna fór ég snemma heim.
Therefore I went home early. (verb before subject)
The number-one error: keeping English subject-verb order after a fronted marker. The verb must come second — fór ég, not ég fór.
❌ Hins vegar þetta er allt of dýrt.
No inversion after fronted hins vegar.
✅ Hins vegar er þetta allt of dýrt.
On the other hand, this is far too expensive. (er before þetta)
Same trap with a different marker. Front hins vegar and the verb jumps ahead of the subject.
❌ (an essay) Það er dýrt og það er lítið og það er langt í burtu.
Too thin for writing — strings of 'og' where richer markers belong.
✅ Það er dýrt. Auk þess er það lítið, og þar að auki langt í burtu.
It's expensive. Besides, it's small, and on top of that far away. (richer additive markers)
In writing, replace strings of og/en with proper discourse markers — your prose reads as cohesive rather than listy.
❌ Því að fór ég heim. (mixing the conjunction því að with the adverb því)
Wrong word class — því að means 'because' and joins clauses; the adverb 'therefore' is því, and it inverts.
✅ Því fór ég heim. / Ég fór heim því að ég var þreyttur.
Therefore I went home. / I went home because I was tired. (því = adverb 'therefore'; því að = conjunction 'because')
Don't confuse the consecutive adverb því ("therefore," inverts) with the causal conjunction því að ("because," no inversion).
❌ Að lokum við fórum heim.
No inversion after fronted að lokum.
✅ Að lokum fórum við heim.
Finally we went home. (fórum before við)
Even multi-word fixed markers like að lokum count as the first element — front them and the verb still inverts.
Key Takeaways
- Discourse markers organise text above the sentence; written Icelandic depends on them for cohesion.
- They are mostly adverbs, and Icelandic is V2 — so fronting one inverts the verb and subject: Þess vegna fór ég, never Þess vegna ég fór.
- Core families: additive (auk þess, einnig, líka), contrastive (hins vegar, samt), causal (þess vegna, þar af leiðandi, því), sequencing (fyrst, síðan, að lokum), reformulating (sem sagt, með öðrum orðum).
- Mid-clause placement (einnig, líka) causes no inversion; fronting does. Position decides.
- In writing, prefer rich markers over endless og/en — and keep the adverb því ("therefore") distinct from the conjunction því að ("because").
Now practice Icelandic
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- 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.
- Cause, Result, and Sequence MarkersB1 — The Icelandic discourse markers for cause, result, and sequencing — þess vegna 'therefore', þar af leiðandi 'consequently', af þeim sökum 'for that reason', and the listing frames fyrst / í fyrsta lagi … í öðru lagi / að lokum — plus the genuinely ambiguous því, which is 'because' clause-initial and 'therefore' as the dative of það, disambiguated by position, with the V2 inversion that fronting each one triggers.
- Additive and Listing MarkersB1 — The discourse markers that add and enumerate: einnig / líka 'also', auk þess 'in addition', þar að auki 'moreover', the í fyrsta / öðru / þriðja lagi 'firstly / secondly / thirdly' frame, the balanced annars vegar … hins vegar 'on the one hand … on the other', and að lokum / loks 'finally'. Most are adverbs, so fronting them inverts the verb (V2) — and the two-handed frame is a register-marked written device, not a simple 'and'.
- Reference, Cohesion, and the PrefieldC1 — How written Icelandic holds a text together: pronominal reference and the það-system, tracking referents with sá / þessi / hinn, the suffixed definite article as the marker of given information, and — the load-bearing device — the PREFIELD (the single slot before the verb) as a cohesion tool, where a writer continues a topic by fronting it and lets V2 do the rest. The insight: good Icelandic prose is a continuous exercise in deciding WHAT TO PUT FIRST, because the prefield is how the V2 grammar lets you thread one clause to the next.
- Conjunctions: Coordinating vs SubordinatingA2 — The split that governs all of Icelandic clause syntax — coordinating conjunctions (og, en, eða, né) join equals and leave word order untouched (V2 survives), while subordinating conjunctions (að, ef, þegar, af því að) open a clause with a different order, where the verb is pushed back behind any 'ekki' or sentence adverb.
- 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.