Weather Vocabulary and Expressions | Icelandic Grammar

Weather is the national small-talk subject of Iceland, and the grammar behind it is unusually clean: nearly everything runs through a dummy subject það ("it") plus either an impersonal verb (Það rignir — "it's raining") or er plus an adjective or noun (Það er kalt — "it's cold"). There's no real "it" doing the raining; það is a placeholder, exactly like English "it" in "it's snowing." The one piece worth memorising as a unit is temperature, which uses a frozen genitive (tíu stiga frost — "ten degrees of frost"). Every noun below is tagged for gender (kk = masculine, kvk = feminine, hk = neuter).

The weather nouns

Icelandic	Gender	English
veður	hk	weather
rigning	kvk	rain
snjór	kk	snow
sól	kvk	sun
vindur	kk	wind
rok	hk	gale / strong wind
ský	hk	cloud
þoka	kvk	fog
frost	hk	frost (below zero)
hiti	kk	heat / warmth (above zero)

Two of these are worth flagging now because they come back in the temperature section. Frost (hk) means cold below zero, and hiti (kk) means warmth above zero. Icelandic splits these lexically where English would just say "minus ten" or "ten degrees" — a distinction competitors flatten but native speakers always make.

Veðrið var ágætt í morgun en svo kom þoka.

The weather was decent this morning but then fog came. 'veðrið' (hk, definite) and 'þoka' (kvk).

Það er mikill snjór á fjöllunum núna.

There's a lot of snow on the mountains now. 'snjór' (kk) — masculine, takes 'mikill'.

"Það rignir" — the impersonal weather verbs

The most natural way to describe weather as an event is an impersonal verb with the dummy subject það. There is no person or thing doing the action — það is a grammatical placeholder, never translated as a real "it." These verbs only ever appear in the third-person singular.

Verb	"Það ..." form	English
rigna	Það rignir	It's raining
snjóa	Það snjóar	It's snowing
hvessa	Það hvessir	The wind is picking up
frjósa	Það frýs	It's freezing
rofa til	Það rofar til	It's clearing up

The key point for English speakers: even though English "it" and Icelandic "það" feel parallel, you must never replace það with a real subject. There is no weather agent. If you try to say "the sky rains" or "the rain rains," you've broken the construction.

Það rignir mikið í dag.

It's raining a lot today. 'Það rignir' — dummy subject, no real 'it'.

Það snjóaði alla nóttina.

It snowed all night. Past tense of the impersonal verb — still just 'það'.

Það er farið að hvessa, við ættum að fara inn.

The wind is starting to pick up, we should go inside. 'hvessa' = the wind strengthening.

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Weather verbs take the dummy subject það and stay in the third-person singular: Það rignir, Það snjóar, Það hvessir. Never give them a real subject — there is nobody doing the raining.

"Það er ..." — weather as a state

For conditions that are states rather than events — cold, hot, sunny, windy — use Það er plus an adjective (in the neuter singular, agreeing with the impersonal það) or Það er plus a noun.

Icelandic	English	Type
Það er kalt	It's cold	adjective (neuter)
Það er heitt	It's hot	adjective (neuter)
Það er hlýtt	It's warm (mild)	adjective (neuter)
Það er svalt	It's cool	adjective (neuter)
Það er hvasst	It's windy	adjective (neuter)
Það er sól	It's sunny (lit. "there is sun")	noun (sól, kvk)
Það er rok	It's blowing a gale	noun (rok, hk)
Það er þoka	It's foggy	noun (þoka, kvk)

Notice the adjectives all end in -t (or -tt): kalt, heitt, hlýtt, svalt, hvasst. That is the neuter ending, because the adjective agrees with the impersonal það (which is neuter). This is why you say Það er kalt and not kaldur — the adjective is not describing a masculine "you," it's describing the neuter weather.

Það er kalt úti, taktu húfu.

It's cold outside, take a hat. 'kalt' — neuter, agreeing with the impersonal weather.

Það er sól og blíða í dag.

It's sunny and lovely today. 'Það er sól' uses the noun sól (kvk) — lit. 'there is sun'.

Það var svo hvasst að ég gat varla gengið.

It was so windy I could barely walk. 'hvasst' (neuter adjective) for a windy state.

"Veðrið er ..." — describing the weather itself

You can also make veður (hk, "weather") the subject and describe it directly with gott ("good") or vont ("bad"). These adjectives are again neuter, because veður is a neuter noun.

Veðrið er ágætt í dag.

The weather is decent today. 'ágætt' — neuter, agreeing with veðrið (hk).

Veðrið var vont alla vikuna.

The weather was bad all week. 'vont' = bad (neuter).

To ask about the weather, the standard question is Hvernig er veðrið? ("How is the weather?").

Hvernig er veðrið hjá ykkur?

What's the weather like where you are? (lit. how is the weather with you-plural?)

Temperature: the frozen genitive "stiga"

Temperature has one fixed pattern you should learn as a unit. The number of degrees goes in the genitive plural — stiga ("of degrees") — followed by hiti (above zero) or frost (below zero):

Icelandic	Literal	English
tíu stiga hiti	ten of-degrees heat	ten degrees (above zero)
tíu stiga frost	ten of-degrees frost	minus ten (ten below)
fimm stiga hiti	five of-degrees heat	five degrees

The word for "degree" is stig (hk); its genitive plural is stiga, and it never changes form in this construction no matter what the number is. So tíu stiga frost literally reads "ten degrees' (worth of) frost." The genitive here is fossilised — don't try to make it agree with anything; it's just stiga every time.

Það er tíu stiga frost úti.

It's minus ten outside. 'tíu stiga frost' — genitive plural 'stiga' + frost (below zero).

Í gær var fimmtán stiga hiti, alveg óvenjulegt.

Yesterday it was fifteen degrees, quite unusual. 'stiga hiti' for warmth above zero.

Hvað eru margar gráður úti? — Það eru þrjú stig.

How many degrees is it outside? — It's three degrees. Here 'stig' stands alone, but the 'X stiga frost/hiti' frame uses the genitive.

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Temperature uses a frozen genitive plural: stiga ("of degrees") + hiti (above zero) or frost (below zero). Tíu stiga frost = minus ten; tíu stiga hiti = plus ten. The word stiga never changes.

Common Mistakes

❌ Himinninn rignir.

Incorrect — you can't give a weather verb a real subject. There's no agent.

✅ Það rignir.

It's raining. Always the dummy subject 'það'.

❌ Ég er kaldur úti.

Incorrect for 'it's cold' — this would mean 'I am cold' (and even then 'mér er kalt' is right). For the weather, don't use a personal subject.

✅ Það er kalt úti.

It's cold outside. Neuter 'kalt' with the impersonal 'það'.

❌ Það er kaldur.

Incorrect — wrong gender. The adjective must be neuter to agree with 'það'.

✅ Það er kalt.

It's cold. Neuter 'kalt'.

❌ Það er tíu stig frost.

Incorrect — needs the genitive plural 'stiga' before frost.

✅ Það er tíu stiga frost.

It's minus ten. 'tíu stiga frost' with the genitive.

❌ Það er tíu stiga kalt.

Incorrect — temperature below zero is named with the noun 'frost', not the adjective 'kalt'.

✅ Það er tíu stiga frost.

It's minus ten. Use 'frost' for below-zero temperatures.

Key Takeaways

Weather nouns carry gender: veður (hk), rigning (kvk), snjór (kk), sól (kvk), vindur (kk), þoka (kvk), frost (hk), hiti (kk).
Weather events use impersonal verbs with það: Það rignir, Það snjóar, Það hvessir — third-person singular only, never a real subject.
Weather states use Það er
- a neuter adjective (kalt, heitt, hlýtt, hvasst) or a noun (Það er sól / rok / þoka).
Describe the weather itself with Veðrið er gott/vont/ágætt; ask with Hvernig er veðrið?
Temperature uses the frozen genitive plural stiga
- hiti (above zero) or frost (below zero): tíu stiga frost = minus ten.

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