"What do you do?" is among the first real conversations you'll have in Icelandic, and it hides three small grammar facts worth knowing in advance. First, professions take no article: you are simply teacher, not a teacher — Ég er kennari. Second, the question itself is built with a preposition: Við hvað vinnur þú? ("At what do you work?"). Third — and this is the one nobody warns you about — workplaces lexicalise í vs á unpredictably: you work á spítala (at a hospital) but í banka (at a bank). Below are the words, the questions, and each of these patterns in turn. Nouns are tagged for gender (kk masculine, kvk feminine, hk neuter).
The core words
| Icelandic | Gender | English |
|---|---|---|
| vinna | kvk | work (the noun); also the verb 'to work' |
| starf | hk | job, position |
| skóli | kk | school |
| háskóli | kk | university |
| nám | hk | studies |
| fag | hk | subject, field |
| kennari | kk | teacher |
| nemandi | kk | student, pupil |
Note that vinna does double duty: it's both the noun "work" (kvk) and the verb "to work" (ég vinn, "I work"). And háskóli (kk) is transparently há- ("high") + skóli — "high school" in the literal sense, but it means university. Don't be misled by the English cognate.
The profession predicate: no article
When you state your profession after vera ("to be"), Icelandic uses the bare nominative — no word for "a." English forces "I am a teacher"; Icelandic says Ég er kennari, with nothing before the noun. The logic: the predicate names a category you belong to, not a specific countable item, so the indefinite article is simply absent (Icelandic has no indefinite article at all).
Ég er kennari.
I'm a teacher. Bare nominative — no word for 'a'.
Hann er læknir og hún er hjúkrunarfræðingur.
He's a doctor and she's a nurse. Both bare: læknir (kk), hjúkrunarfræðingur (kk).
Ég er ekki nemandi lengur, ég er kominn út á vinnumarkaðinn.
I'm not a student anymore, I've entered the job market. Still bare: nemandi.
The -ari agent nouns
A large family of job words ends in -ari (kk) — the productive agent suffix, roughly English "-er." It attaches to a verb stem: kenna ("teach") → kennari ("teacher"); baka ("bake") → bakari ("baker"); leika ("act/play") → leikari ("actor"). Recognising the pattern lets you decode and even guess profession words.
| Verb | Agent noun (kk) | English |
|---|---|---|
| kenna | kennari | teacher |
| baka | bakari | baker |
| leika | leikari | actor |
| sjóða | sjómaður* | (*irregular — fisherman is sjómaður, not an -ari) |
Not every job ends in -ari — læknir (doctor), smiður (carpenter), and -fræðingur scholars (hjúkrunarfræðingur, nurse) follow other patterns — but -ari is the one to recognise first.
Asking about work: "Við hvað vinnur þú?"
The natural question is Við hvað vinnur þú? — literally "At what do you work?" The preposition við is built into the idiom; you cannot drop it. A looser, very common alternative is Hvað gerirðu? ("What do you do?", with gera = to do). Both invite the same kind of answer.
Við hvað vinnur þú?
What do you do for work? Literally 'At what do you work?' — við is part of the idiom.
Hvað gerirðu? — Ég er forritari.
What do you do? — I'm a programmer. gerirðu = gerir + þú; answer in the bare predicate.
Ég vinn sem þýðandi hjá litlu fyrirtæki.
I work as a translator at a small company. 'vinna sem' + bare noun; hjá + dative for the employer.
Where you work: the í / á lottery
Now the tricky part. To say where you work, you use vinna á or vinna í + the workplace — and which preposition a workplace takes is lexicalised, not predictable from meaning. It is the same place-assignment lottery you meet with towns and regions: you simply have to learn each one.
| Workplace | Gender | "I work at ..." |
|---|---|---|
| spítali | kk | á spítala |
| skrifstofa | kvk | á skrifstofu |
| banki | kk | í banka |
| skóli | kk | í skóla |
| verslun | kvk | í verslun / í búð |
| leikskóli | kk | á leikskóla |
Both prepositions govern the dative here (location, not motion). There's no semantic rule that makes a hospital "on" and a bank "in" — á spítala, á skrifstofu vs í banka, í skóla are just fixed. Learn the workplace together with its preposition as a single chunk.
Ég vinn á spítala.
I work at a hospital. á + dative spítala — fixed, no logic to it.
Hún vinnur í banka í miðbænum.
She works at a bank downtown. í + dative banka — a different preposition from spítali.
Ég er á skrifstofu allan daginn.
I'm at the office all day. á skrifstofu — office takes á.
Studying: "í námi" and "læra"
For studies, two patterns cover most situations. vera í námi ("to be in study/education") describes your status as a student, and vera í háskóla ("to be at university") names the institution. The verb læra ("to learn/study") names the activity or subject: Ég er að læra íslensku ("I'm studying Icelandic"). The more formal verb nema also means "to study" but is bookish.
Ég er í námi við Háskóla Íslands.
I'm studying at the University of Iceland. vera í námi = to be in education; við + the institution.
Hún er í háskóla og er að læra lögfræði.
She's at university and studying law. vera í háskóla (status) + læra + the subject.
Ég er að læra íslensku þessa dagana.
I'm studying Icelandic these days. læra + the subject in the accusative (íslensku).
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég er einn kennari.
Incorrect — no article before a profession. einn is the numeral 'one', not 'a'.
✅ Ég er kennari.
I'm a teacher. Bare nominative.
❌ Hvað vinnur þú?
Incomplete — the idiom needs the preposition við.
✅ Við hvað vinnur þú?
What do you do for work? 'At what do you work?'
❌ Ég vinn í spítala.
Incorrect preposition — hospital takes á, not í.
✅ Ég vinn á spítala.
I work at a hospital. á spítala is fixed.
❌ Ég vinn á banka.
Incorrect preposition — bank takes í, not á.
✅ Ég vinn í banka.
I work at a bank. í banka is fixed.
❌ Ég læri íslenska.
Incorrect — læra takes the accusative object: íslensku, not the bare adjective íslenska.
✅ Ég er að læra íslensku.
I'm studying Icelandic. íslensku is the accusative.
Key Takeaways
- Professions take no article: Ég er kennari — Icelandic has no word for "a."
- Many job words end in -ari (kk), the agent suffix on a verb stem: kenna → kennari, baka → bakari.
- Ask Við hvað vinnur þú? (with við) or the looser Hvað gerirðu?.
- Workplaces fix í or á lexically — á spítala, á skrifstofu, but í banka, í skóla — both with the dative. Memorise the pair.
- For studies: vera í námi / í háskóla for status, læra + accusative for the subject (læra íslensku).
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- í vs á: Choosing the Right LocativeA2 — A practical decision guide and memorise-list for choosing between í 'in' and á 'on/at' with Icelandic place names, activities and events — a split that is partly logical and largely lexical.