Describing your daily routine is one of the most useful things you can do at A2, and it pulls together a tight set of verbs (most of them built on fara, "to go") and a small family of habitual time phrases. The grammar is friendly — Icelandic uses the plain present tense for habits, just like English "I get up at seven" — but one piece is a notorious trap: the morgun trio, where the same root means "tomorrow," "this morning," and "in the mornings" depending only on preposition and number. Every noun below is tagged for gender (kk = masculine, kvk = feminine, hk = neuter), because gender controls every ending.
The core routine verbs
Most of the verbs in a daily routine are motion verbs, and most of those are fara ("to go") plus a destination. Learn fara first and the rest fall into place.
| Icelandic | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| vakna | to wake up | opening your eyes — a state change |
| fara á fætur | to get up (out of bed) | lit. "go onto (one's) feet" |
| fara í sturtu | to take a shower | sturta (kvk) → í sturtu |
| fara í föt / klæða sig | to get dressed | föt (hk pl) = clothes |
| borða morgunmat | to eat breakfast | morgunmatur (kk) |
| fara í vinnuna / í skólann | to go to work / to school | vinna (kvk), skóli (kk) |
| koma heim | to come home | heim = "homewards" |
| fara að sofa | to go to bed / go to sleep | lit. "go to sleep" |
A few of these deserve a closer look. Vakna ("wake up") and fara á fætur ("get up") are two different events that English often blurs into one: you vaknar when your eyes open, and you ferð á fætur when you actually leave the bed. The idiom fara á fætur literally means "go onto (one's) feet" — fætur (kk pl) is "feet."
Ég vakna klukkan sjö á morgnana.
I wake up at seven in the mornings. The classic routine opener — present tense for a habit, 'á morgnana' for 'in the mornings'.
Ég er löngu vöknuð en nenni ekki á fætur.
I've been awake for ages but can't be bothered to get up. Note the split: vakna (awake) ≠ fara á fætur (leave the bed).
Hann fer alltaf í sturtu áður en hann borðar morgunmat.
He always takes a shower before he eats breakfast. 'fara í sturtu' — sturta (kvk) goes into the accusative after í.
"Going to" places: the article you can't drop
When Icelanders go to work or school, they almost always use the definite form: í vinnuna ("to the work"), í skólann ("to the school") — even when English drops the article entirely ("go to work," "go to school"). Treat fara í vinnuna and fara í skólann as fixed phrases.
| Place (gender) | "go to" (def.) | English |
|---|---|---|
| vinna (kvk) | fara í vinnuna | go to work |
| skóli (kk) | fara í skólann | go to school |
| rúm (hk) | fara upp í rúm | go (up) to bed |
Ég fer í vinnuna klukkan átta og kem heim um sex.
I go to work at eight and come home around six. Note 'í vinnuna' (definite) and 'um sex' (around six).
Krakkarnir fara í skólann gangandi.
The kids walk to school (lit. go to school walking). 'í skólann' — the definite form is standard.
The present tense IS the habitual
Icelandic has no separate "I do" vs "I am doing" the way English does. The plain present covers both the action happening right now and the habit you repeat every day. So ég vakna klukkan sjö can mean "I'm waking up at seven (today)" or "I wake up at seven (every day)" — context and time phrases decide.
This is good news for English speakers: there is nothing extra to learn. Just resist the urge to invent a continuous form. There is no "ég er að vakna klukkan sjö á morgnana" for a habit — the habit is always the bare present.
Á virkum dögum fer ég að sofa um ellefu.
On weekdays I go to bed around eleven. Plain present for a settled habit; 'á virkum dögum' = on weekdays.
Um helgar sef ég lengur.
At weekends I sleep longer. 'um helgar' (habitual, plural) + plain present 'sef' for the habit.
Habitual time phrases: the plural-with-article pattern
Here is the structural insight of the page. To say something happens habitually at a time of day, Icelandic uses the plural with the definite article:
| Time phrase | English (habitual) | Built from |
|---|---|---|
| á morgnana | in the mornings | morgnar (kk pl) + def. |
| á daginn | during the day | dagur (kk) + def. |
| á kvöldin | in the evenings | kvöld (hk pl) + def. |
| á næturnar | at night (habitually) | nætur (kvk pl) + def. |
| um helgar | at weekends | helgar (kvk pl) |
The logic: a habit happens across many mornings, so the noun is plural, and the definite article marks "the (recurring) ones." Compare á morgnana ("on the mornings, every morning") with a single point in time, which stays singular.
Á kvöldin horfum við oft á sjónvarpið saman.
In the evenings we often watch TV together. 'á kvöldin' = habitually in the evenings, plural + article.
Hún drekkur kaffi á morgnana og te á kvöldin.
She drinks coffee in the mornings and tea in the evenings. Both habitual — both plural with the article.
Um helgar förum við stundum í sund.
At weekends we sometimes go to the pool. 'um helgar' is the habitual weekend phrase.
The morgun trio: tomorrow, this morning, in the mornings
This is the single most error-prone corner of routine vocabulary. One root, morgun (kk, "morning"), gives three completely different meanings depending on the preposition and the number:
| Phrase | Meaning | Type |
|---|---|---|
| á morgun | tomorrow | future point |
| í morgun | this morning (the one just past) | recent point |
| á morgnana | in the mornings (every morning) | habitual |
Three meanings — future, recent past, and habitual — packed into one root and distinguished only by á vs í and singular vs plural. Note the spelling shift: the habitual form is morgnana (with the syncopated -gn-), not morgunana.
Ég fór seint að sofa í gærkvöldi en samt vaknaði ég snemma í morgun.
I went to bed late last night but still woke up early this morning. 'í morgun' = this morning (just past).
Við þurfum að vakna snemma á morgun.
We need to wake up early tomorrow. 'á morgun' = tomorrow — same root, totally different meaning.
Ég fer alltaf snemma á fætur á morgnana.
I always get up early in the mornings. 'á morgnana' = habitually, every morning — note the plural 'morgnana'.
Putting a routine together
With the verbs and time phrases in hand, you can narrate a whole day. The frame is: time phrase + plain present verb.
Á morgnana vakna ég klukkan sjö, fer í sturtu og borða morgunmat. Svo fer ég í vinnuna.
In the mornings I wake up at seven, take a shower and eat breakfast. Then I go to work.
Á kvöldin kem ég heim um sex, elda kvöldmat og fer að sofa um ellefu.
In the evenings I come home around six, cook dinner and go to bed around eleven.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég vakna klukkan sjö á morgun.
Incorrect for a habit — 'á morgun' means 'tomorrow', not 'in the mornings'.
✅ Ég vakna klukkan sjö á morgnana.
I wake up at seven in the mornings. Habitual = plural with the article.
❌ Ég vaknaði snemma á morgun.
Incorrect — past tense 'vaknaði' (woke) cannot go with 'á morgun' (tomorrow). You mean 'í morgun'.
✅ Ég vaknaði snemma í morgun.
I woke up early this morning. Recent past = 'í morgun'.
❌ Ég er að vakna klukkan sjö á morgnana.
Incorrect — no progressive for a habit. Don't calque English 'I am waking up'.
✅ Ég vakna klukkan sjö á morgnana.
I wake up at seven in the mornings. The plain present IS the habitual.
❌ Ég fer í vinnu klukkan átta.
Unnatural for your own regular job — Icelandic keeps the article.
✅ Ég fer í vinnuna klukkan átta.
I go to work at eight. 'í vinnuna' (definite).
❌ Ég fer í rúm.
Incomplete/odd — 'go to bed' uses 'að sofa' or 'upp í rúm', not bare 'í rúm'.
✅ Ég fer að sofa.
I go to bed / go to sleep. 'fara að sofa' is the everyday phrase.
Key Takeaways
- The routine verbs are mostly fara
- destination: fara á fætur, fara í sturtu, fara í vinnuna/skólann, fara að sofa. Plus vakna (wake up) and koma heim (come home).
- Vakna (eyes open) and fara á fætur (leave the bed) are two separate events.
- "Go to work/school" keeps the article: fara í vinnuna, fara í skólann.
- The plain present is the habitual — there is no separate continuous form for habits.
- Habitual time-of-day phrases are plural + article: á morgnana, á kvöldin, á næturnar; weekends are um helgar.
- The morgun trio: á morgun (tomorrow), í morgun (this morning, just past), á morgnana (in the mornings, habit) — memorise all three.
Now practice Icelandic
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Frequency and Habitual ExpressionsA2 — How to say how often something happens — the frequency scale, the dedicated single-word adverbs einu sinni / tvisvar / þrisvar for one-to-three times, the X sinnum pattern from four up, and per-period frequencies like tvisvar í viku.
- Time Phrases and Frozen Temporal IdiomsA2 — Telling the time (Klukkan er þrjú, hálf fjögur, korter í/yfir) and the high-frequency frozen time expressions (í dag, í gær, á morgun, um helgina, í gærkvöldi) whose case and preposition are lexicalised — memorise them as units, don't derive them.