Directions and Location Vocabulary | Icelandic Grammar

Asking for and giving directions looks like pure vocabulary, but it's secretly a case-government drill. Each location phrase — "next to," "in front of," "between" — locks the noun after it into a specific case, and they don't all agree. Við hliðina á takes the dative; fyrir framan takes the accusative; á milli takes the genitive. Learn the phrase with its case glued on, and direction-giving becomes automatic. The pure direction words (til hægri, beint áfram) are mercifully fixed and don't decline — so the whole challenge is the prepositional phrases. Every noun below is tagged for gender (kk, kvk, hk).

The fixed direction words

These are the indeclinable building blocks — they never change shape, so you can use them freely:

Icelandic	English
til hægri	(to the) right
til vinstri	(to the) left
beint áfram	straight ahead
til baka	back (the way you came)
hérna megin	(on) this side
hinum megin	(on) the other side
upp / niður	up / down

Hægri and vinstri are frozen in these phrases — even though they're originally adjectives, here they don't inflect. Til would normally demand the genitive, but hægri/vinstri simply don't change, so you never have to think about it.

Farðu til hægri við ljósin og svo beint áfram.

Turn right at the lights and then straight ahead. 'til hægri' and 'beint áfram' are both fixed — nothing to decline.

Búðin er hinum megin við götuna.

The shop is on the other side of the street. 'hinum megin við' + accusative 'götuna'.

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The pure direction words — til hægri, til vinstri, beint áfram — never change form. All the grammatical difficulty in directions lives in the location phrases below, where each preposition fixes a case.

The compass: norður, suður, austur, vestur

Icelanders use the compass far more than English speakers do — not just for hiking but inside town ("it's on the north side"). The four directions:

Icelandic	English
norður	north
suður	south
austur	east
vestur	west

Við keyrðum norður á Akureyri um helgina.

We drove north to Akureyri over the weekend. 'norður' as a directional adverb of motion.

"Near" and "far": nálægt and langt

Nálægt ("near") is itself a dative preposition — what's nearby goes into the dative. Langt ("far") pairs with frá (from) + dative for "far from."

Hótelið er mjög nálægt miðbænum.

The hotel is very near the city centre. 'nálægt' + dative 'miðbænum'.

Það er ekki langt héðan, kannski tíu mínútur.

It's not far from here, maybe ten minutes. 'langt' + 'héðan' (from here).

The location phrases and their cases

This is the heart of the page. Each phrase below pins the following noun to a fixed case. Memorize the case as part of the phrase.

Phrase	Governs	English
við hliðina á	dative	next to
fyrir framan	accusative	in front of
fyrir aftan	accusative	behind
fyrir ofan	accusative	above
fyrir neðan	accusative	below
á milli	genitive	between
á horninu	(fixed dative)	on the corner
á móti	dative	across from / opposite

Við hliðina á is itself a little phrase: við hliðina ("at the side") + á ("on/at"), and the á is what drags the next noun into the dative. Fyrir framan/aftan/ofan/neðan all take the accusative — the fyrir family of directional prepositions points at a location, and Icelandic uses the accusative for that pointing. Á milli ("between") takes the genitive, because milli is a genitive preposition.

Það er við hliðina á bankanum.

It's next to the bank. 'við hliðina á' + dative 'bankanum'.

Bílastæðið er fyrir aftan húsið.

The car park is behind the house. 'fyrir aftan' + accusative 'húsið'.

Apótekið er á milli kaffihússins og bókabúðarinnar.

The pharmacy is between the café and the bookshop. 'á milli' + genitive: 'kaffihússins', 'bókabúðarinnar'.

Kirkjan er beint á móti ráðhúsinu.

The church is directly opposite the city hall. 'á móti' + dative 'ráðhúsinu'.

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Glue the case to the phrase: við hliðina á + dative, fyrir framan + accusative, á milli + genitive. Three location phrases, three different cases. If you learn them as bare words, you'll guess wrong half the time.

"On the corner": á horninu and á næsta horni

A landmark phrase: horn (hk) is "corner." "On the corner" is á horninu (dative with the article), and "at the next corner" is á næsta horni (dative, the adjective næsta agreeing). The preposition á here is locational, so it takes the dative.

Kaffihúsið er á horninu, þú sérð það strax.

The café is on the corner, you'll see it right away. 'á horninu' — dative of 'horn' (hk) with the article.

Beygðu til vinstri á næsta horni.

Turn left at the next corner. 'á næsta horni' — dative, with 'næsta' (next) agreeing.

Putting a route together

A real set of directions chains these pieces. Notice how the cases shift from phrase to phrase inside a single route:

Farðu beint áfram, taktu fyrstu götu til hægri, og þá er búðin fyrir framan þig.

Go straight ahead, take the first street on the right, and then the shop is in front of you. 'fyrir framan' + accusative 'þig'.

Pósthúsið? Það er hérna megin, við hliðina á bókasafninu.

The post office? It's on this side, next to the library. 'við hliðina á' + dative 'bókasafninu'.

Common Mistakes

❌ við hliðina á bankann

Incorrect — 'við hliðina á' governs the dative, not the accusative.

✅ við hliðina á bankanum

next to the bank. Dative 'bankanum' after the phrase.

❌ fyrir framan húsinu

Incorrect — 'fyrir framan' takes the accusative, not the dative.

✅ fyrir framan húsið

in front of the house. Accusative 'húsið'.

❌ á milli kaffihúsinu og bókabúðinni

Incorrect — 'á milli' (between) requires the genitive on both nouns.

✅ á milli kaffihússins og bókabúðarinnar

between the café and the bookshop. Genitive on both.

❌ Farðu til hægra.

Incorrect — 'hægri' is frozen in this phrase and doesn't inflect to 'hægra'.

✅ Farðu til hægri.

Turn right. 'til hægri' is fixed.

❌ Hótelið er nálægt miðbæinn.

Incorrect — 'nálægt' is a dative preposition, so 'miðbæinn' (accusative) is wrong.

✅ Hótelið er nálægt miðbænum.

The hotel is near the city centre. Dative 'miðbænum'.

Key Takeaways

The pure direction words — til hægri / til vinstri / beint áfram — never change form; all the difficulty is in the location phrases.
Glue the case to each location phrase: við hliðina á
- dative, á móti
  - dative, nálægt
    - dative; fyrir framan / aftan / ofan / neðan
      - accusative; á milli
        genitive.
"On the corner" is á horninu (locational á
- dative); "at the next corner" is á næsta horni.
A real route shifts cases from clause to clause — fyrir framan þig (accusative), við hliðina á bókasafninu (dative) — so practise whole directions, not isolated words.
Icelanders use the compass (norður, suður, austur, vestur) even inside town.

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