Talking about food is one of the first things you'll do in Icelandic, and the vocabulary is easy to gather. The grammar hiding inside it is less obvious: Icelandic does not "have" a coffee, it gets itself one (fá sér), and it measures portions with af + dative (glas af vatni, a glass of water). Master those two patterns alongside the words and you'll sound natural from the first café visit. Every noun below is tagged for gender (kk = masculine, kvk = feminine, hk = neuter), because Icelandic gender is unpredictable and it controls every ending you'll attach.
The core food and drink words
| Icelandic | Gender | English |
|---|---|---|
| matur | kk | food |
| brauð | hk | bread |
| fiskur | kk | fish |
| kjöt | hk | meat |
| grænmeti | hk | vegetables |
| ávöxtur | kk | fruit (one piece) |
| súpa | kvk | soup |
| ostur | kk | cheese |
| egg | hk | egg |
| Icelandic | Gender | English |
|---|---|---|
| mjólk | kvk | milk |
| kaffi | hk | coffee |
| te | hk | tea |
| vatn | hk | water |
| bjór | kk | beer |
| djús / safi | kk | juice |
A note on ávöxtur (kk): it means a single fruit. The everyday plural "fruit / some fruit" is ávextir (kk pl). And grænmeti (hk) is a mass noun — "vegetables" as a category — so it stays singular even when you mean a plateful.
Mér finnst fiskur betri en kjöt.
I like fish better than meat. 'fiskur' (kk) and 'kjöt' (hk) — two staples of the Icelandic table.
Það er ekkert grænmeti til í ísskápnum.
There aren't any vegetables left in the fridge. 'grænmeti' (hk) is a mass noun and stays singular.
The three meals
The names of the meals are all compounds ending in -matur (kk), so they are all masculine, and they all behave like matur:
| Icelandic | Gender | English |
|---|---|---|
| morgunmatur | kk | breakfast (lit. morning-food) |
| hádegismatur | kk | lunch (lit. noon-food) |
| kvöldmatur | kk | dinner / supper (lit. evening-food) |
To say you're eating for a given meal, use í + accusative: í morgunmat, í hádegismat, í kvöldmat. (The compound drops to its bare accusative -mat here, not -matur.)
Hvað viltu í kvöldmatinn?
What do you want for dinner? 'í + accusative' with the definite article: 'kvöldmatinn' = the dinner (the one we're planning).
Ég fæ mér yfirleitt hafragraut í morgunmat.
I usually have porridge for breakfast. 'í morgunmat' = for breakfast (í + accusative, indefinite this time).
"Fá sér" — how Icelandic "has" food and drink
This is the single most useful idiom on the page, and the one English speakers most often get wrong. When you "have" a coffee, "grab" a snack, or "get yourself" something to eat or drink, Icelandic uses fá sér — literally "to get oneself." It is a reflexive of fá (to get), and the reflexive part sér marks that you're getting it for yourself. This is the default verb for self-service eating and drinking — ordering, helping yourself, treating yourself.
| Person | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| I | ég fæ mér | ég fæ mér kaffi |
| you (sg.) | þú færð þér | færðu þér bjór? |
| he/she | hann/hún fær sér | hún fær sér súpu |
| we | við fáum okkur | fáum okkur kökur! |
Eigum við ekki að fá okkur kaffi?
Shall we get a coffee? The classic invitation — 'fá okkur' (get ourselves) is how you propose grabbing a drink together.
Ég ætla að fá mér einn bjór.
I'll have one beer. 'fá mér' is also the standard way to order — 'get myself'.
Fáðu þér köku, þær eru nýbakaðar!
Have some cake, they're freshly baked! Imperative 'fáðu þér' — help yourself.
The contrast to draw: borða (to eat) and drekka (to drink) are the plain physical acts — chewing, swallowing. Fá sér is the social act of having something. "Ég borða" answers "what do you do with food?"; "ég fæ mér kaffi" is what you actually say in the café.
Við borðum klukkan sjö, en fáðu þér ávöxt á meðan.
We eat at seven, but have a piece of fruit in the meantime. 'borða' = the act of eating dinner; 'fá sér' = grab something now.
Portions: "af + dative" for a glass/cup/bottle of something
To say "a glass of water," "a cup of coffee," Icelandic uses af + the dative. This is the partitive: the measure word names the container, af links it to the substance, and the substance goes into the dative.
| Measure (gender) |
| English |
|---|---|---|
| glas (hk) | glas af vatni | a glass of water |
| bolli (kk) | bolli af kaffi | a cup of coffee |
| flaska (kvk) | flaska af mjólk | a bottle of milk |
| kanna (kvk) | kanna af te | a pot of tea |
Notice the dative endings: vatn → vatni, mjólk stays mjólk (no change in the dative singular), kaffi and te are indeclinable. The key is to remember that af triggers the dative even when the word happens to look unchanged.
Get ég fengið glas af vatni?
Can I have a glass of water? 'glas af vatni' — vatn goes into the dative (vatni) after 'af'.
Hún drakk tvo bolla af kaffi fyrir hádegi.
She drank two cups of coffee before noon. 'bolla af kaffi' — the cups are counted, the coffee stays in the dative.
Það er bara hálf flaska af mjólk eftir.
There's only half a bottle of milk left. 'af mjólk' — mjólk (kvk) looks the same in the dative but it IS dative here.
Ordering in a café
Two polite frames cover most café situations. Ég ætla að fá … ("I'm going to have …") and Get ég fengið …? ("Can I have …?"). Both take the accusative for the thing ordered.
Ég ætla að fá einn kaffi og eitt vínarbrauð, takk.
I'll have one coffee and one Danish pastry, please. 'fá + accusative' — the standard order.
Get ég fengið reikninginn, takk?
Can I have the bill, please? 'Get ég fengið …?' is the all-purpose 'may I have' frame.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég hef kaffi.
Incorrect — using 'hafa' (to have) like English. Icelandic doesn't 'have' a coffee.
✅ Ég fæ mér kaffi.
I'll have a coffee. Use 'fá sér' — get oneself.
❌ Ég er kaffi.
Incorrect — 'vera' (to be) is never used for having food/drink.
✅ Fáum okkur kaffi!
Let's have a coffee! Reflexive 'fá sér', conjugated for 'we' = fá okkur.
❌ glas vatn
Incorrect — missing 'af', and the noun is left in the nominative.
✅ glas af vatni
A glass of water. 'af' + the dative (vatni).
❌ Hvað viltu fyrir kvöldmat?
Incorrect — calquing English 'for dinner' with 'fyrir'. Icelandic uses 'í'.
✅ Hvað viltu í kvöldmat?
What do you want for dinner? 'í + accusative' for meals.
❌ Ég fæ kaffi.
Incomplete in the 'help yourself' sense — drops the reflexive 'mér', so it just means 'I receive coffee'.
✅ Ég fæ mér kaffi.
I'll have a coffee. The reflexive 'mér' makes it 'get myself'.
Key Takeaways
- Food/drink words carry unpredictable gender — learn matur (kk), brauð (hk), mjólk (kvk), kaffi/vatn (hk) as word + gender pairs.
- The three meals are masculine compounds in -matur; "for breakfast/lunch/dinner" is í + accusative: í morgunmat, í hádegismat, í kvöldmat.
- "Have a coffee / a snack" is fá sér (get oneself), the default eating/drinking idiom — never hafa or vera. The reflexive conjugates: mér, þér, sér, okkur.
- Portions use af + dative: glas af vatni, bolli af kaffi, flaska af mjólk.
- Order with Ég ætla að fá … or Get ég fengið …?
- accusative.
Now practice Icelandic
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Shopping and Service PhrasesA2 — The survival phrases for shops, restaurants, and services — Hvað kostar þetta?, Ég ætla að fá ..., Get ég borgað með korti? — built around the key verb-choice habit that Icelandic orders with 'fá' (get), not 'kaupa' (buy) or 'vilja' (want), plus the case each phrase governs.
- Annotated Dialogue: Ordering at a CaféA1 — A natural café-ordering dialogue in Icelandic — fully glossed, then unpacked for the accusative-subject verb langa (Mig langar í kaffi), ætla að + infinitive (Ég ætla að fá …), the benefactive fá sér, prices with the feminine króna/krónur, and takk fyrir.