Some of the most frequent — and most fossilised — errors English speakers make in Icelandic cluster around a single construction: the quirky subject. These are verbs like langa ("want"), vanta ("lack/need"), líka ("like"), and finnast ("find/think"), where the person who experiences the feeling does not stand in the nominative. Instead the experiencer appears in the accusative or the dative, and the verb agrees with a different noun — the nominative theme — somewhere else in the sentence.
English has nothing like this. "I want," "I need," "I like" all put the experiencer in the subject slot in the nominative, and the verb agrees with that experiencer. So the English speaker's instinct produces a doubly wrong sentence: the experiencer gets nominativised (ég instead of mig/mér), and the verb is forced to agree with that wrong subject. This page is a catalogue of those errors. (For why these verbs behave this way — the syntax of quirky subjects — see the dedicated overview pages; here we only fix the mistakes.)
Error 1: nominativising the experiencer with langa
This is the flagship error. langa ("to want") takes an accusative experiencer, so "I want" is mig langar, literally "(it) longs me." Putting ég (nominative) in front of langar is the reflex every English speaker brings, and it is wrong.
❌ Ég langar í kaffi.
Incorrect — langa takes an accusative experiencer, not the nominative ég.
✅ Mig langar í kaffi.
I'd like a coffee. — accusative experiencer: mig.
Why it's wrong: with langa, the wanter is the object of the longing, not its subject. The case is accusative: mig, þig, hann, hana, okkur, ykkur, þau. Underlying rule: langa + accusative experiencer — mig langar, þig langar, hana langar.
Error 2: the stigmatised "dative sickness" — *mér langar
Once a learner discovers that langa doesn't take the nominative, a very natural over-correction is to reach for the dative: mér langar. This sounds plausible — many experiencer verbs do take the dative — but with langa it is wrong, and it is wrong in a socially loaded way. Icelanders call the dative-for-accusative substitution þágufallssýki ("dative sickness"), and although it is widespread in casual native speech, it is heavily stigmatised in schools and corrected in writing. The prescriptively correct experiencer for langa is the accusative mig.
❌ Mér langar að fara heim.
Stigmatised (þágufallssýki) — langa takes the accusative mig, not the dative mér.
✅ Mig langar að fara heim.
I want to go home. — accusative experiencer: mig.
Why it's wrong: langa is one of the verbs that resists the dative drift in the standard language. Underlying rule: langa and vanta take the ACCUSATIVE (mig langar, mig vantar) — do not "upgrade" them to the dative, however natural mér feels.
Error 3: nominativising the experiencer with vanta
vanta ("to lack, to need") behaves exactly like langa: accusative experiencer, and the thing lacked stands in the accusative too. "I need X" is mig vantar X — never ég vantar.
❌ Ég vantar pening.
Incorrect — vanta takes an accusative experiencer, not the nominative ég.
✅ Mig vantar pening.
I need money. — accusative experiencer mig; the thing lacked (pening) is also accusative.
Why it's wrong: vanta is impersonal — there is no nominative subject at all; the experiencer is accusative and the lacked thing is accusative. Underlying rule: vanta + accusative experiencer + accusative thing (mig vantar bíl, hana vantar hjálp).
Error 4: nominativising the experiencer with líka
líka ("to like/be pleased by") takes a dative experiencer. "I like it" is mér líkar það, literally "to-me it-is-pleasing." So here the over-corrected dative from Error 2 is actually correct — but the verb belongs to a different family, and you have to know which case each verb wants. Using ég is wrong; the right form is mér.
❌ Ég líkar þessi mynd.
Incorrect — líka takes a dative experiencer, not the nominative ég.
✅ Mér líkar þessi mynd.
I like this film. — dative experiencer: mér.
Why it's wrong: líka assigns the dative to the experiencer (the thing liked is the nominative subject — see Error 7). Underlying rule: líka + dative experiencer — mér líkar, þér líkar, honum líkar.
Error 5: nominativising the experiencer with finnast
finnast ("to find, to think, to have the impression") is the single most useful opinion verb in conversational Icelandic — mér finnst … "I think / it seems to me …" — and it takes a dative experiencer. The error is, again, the reflexive ég: ég finnst is impossible.
❌ Ég finnst þetta skrýtið.
Incorrect — finnast takes a dative experiencer, not the nominative ég.
✅ Mér finnst þetta skrýtið.
I think this is weird. — dative experiencer: mér.
Why it's wrong: finnast is built on the dative-experiencer pattern; the opinion-holder is dative and the thing judged is the nominative subject. Underlying rule: mér finnst is the template — burn it in whole, because you will use it constantly: mér finnst gaman, mér finnst þetta gott, henni finnst kalt.
Error 6: "I am cold" — the ég er kaldur trap
English says "I am cold" with the adjective predicated of you: subject I, copula am, adjective cold. In Icelandic, a person feeling cold is expressed impersonally with the dative: mér er kalt, literally "to-me (it) is cold." Saying ég er kaldur doesn't describe your sensation — kaldur (masculine nominative) describes your temperature or, idiomatically, your personality (cold, aloof). For the feeling, you need the dative experiencer plus the neuter form kalt.
❌ Ég er kaldur.
Incorrect for 'I feel cold' — this means 'I am a cold person' / 'I am cold to the touch'; use the dative impersonal.
✅ Mér er kalt.
I'm cold. — dative experiencer mér + neuter predicate kalt.
Why it's wrong: bodily sensations (cold, hot, sick, dizzy, bored) are impersonal in Icelandic — there is no nominative subject, so the predicate adjective defaults to the neuter kalt (not masculine kaldur or feminine köld), and the experiencer is dative. Underlying rule: mér er kalt / heitt / illt / flökurt — dative person + neuter state. The same template gives mér er heitt ("I'm hot"), mér er illt ("I feel ill"), henni er kalt ("she's cold").
Error 7: failing to agree the verb with the nominative theme
This is the deeper, more insidious half of the problem, and it is what separates a learner who has merely memorised mér líkar from one who actually understands the construction. With líka, finnast, and similar verbs, the experiencer is oblique (dative), but there is still a nominative noun in the sentence — the thing liked or judged — and the verb agrees with that, in number and person. So if the thing liked is plural, the verb goes plural, even though the dative experiencer looks like a singular "I."
❌ Mér líkar þessar bækur.
Incorrect — the nominative theme 'þessar bækur' is plural, so the verb must be plural too.
✅ Mér líka þessar bækur.
I like these books. — verb agrees with the plural nominative theme: líka, not líkar.
Why it's wrong: þessar bækur ("these books") is the nominative subject of líka; mér is only the dative experiencer. A plural subject forces a plural verb: líka, not the 3rd-singular líkar. Underlying rule: the verb agrees with the nominative theme, never with the oblique experiencer. Singular theme → mér líkar þessi bók; plural theme → mér líka þessar bækur.
The same applies to finnast. Compare:
✅ Mér finnst þessi skór flottur.
I think this shoe is cool. — singular theme, singular verb finnst.
✅ Mér finnast þessir skór flottir.
I think these shoes are cool. — plural theme, plural verb finnast.
And the same with vanta, where the second accusative can be plural and the verb still tracks it impersonally:
❌ Mig vantar tvær miðar.
Incorrect — 'miði' is masculine, so 'two tickets' is tvo miða (acc. masc.), not the feminine tvær miðar.
✅ Mig vantar tvo miða.
I need two tickets. — accusative experiencer mig + accusative plural object tvo miða.
The errors are doubly systematic — fix them as a unit
Notice what makes these mistakes so reliable: the English speaker gets them wrong in two ways at once. They (1) put the experiencer in the nominative (ég), and they (2) make the verb agree with that experiencer. Both errors flow from the same false assumption — that the experiencer is the grammatical subject. So don't drill the case and the agreement separately. Drill the whole pattern as one chunk:
experiencer in the oblique case (accusative or dative) + verb agreeing with the nominative theme.
Once that pattern is a single reflex, all six verbs above fall into place, and you stop producing the tell-tale ég líkar þetta that instantly marks a foreign speaker.
Quick-reference: the verbs behind the errors
| Verb | Experiencer case | Template | Theme agreement |
|---|---|---|---|
| langa (want) | accusative | mig langar | impersonal (verb stays singular) |
| vanta (need/lack) | accusative | mig vantar | impersonal (verb stays singular) |
| líka (like) | dative | mér líkar / líka | agrees with nominative theme |
| finnast (find/think) | dative | mér finnst / finnast | agrees with nominative theme |
| vera kalt (feel cold) | dative | mér er kalt | neuter predicate (kalt) |
Key Takeaways
- The experiencer is never nominative with these verbs — it is accusative (mig langar, mig vantar) or dative (mér líkar, mér finnst, mér er kalt).
- langa and vanta take the accusative; the "natural"-sounding dative mér langar is the stigmatised þágufallssýki — the standard form is mig langar.
- "I'm cold" is impersonal: mér er kalt (dative + neuter kalt), not ég er kaldur.
- With líka and finnast, the verb agrees with the nominative theme, not the experiencer: mér líka þessar bækur (plural), mér finnast þessir skór flottir.
- Drill the construction as one chunk — oblique experiencer + verb agreeing with the nominative theme — because the English-speaker error is doubly systematic.
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Quirky (Oblique) Subjects: OverviewA2 — Icelandic's flagship feature: a large class of verbs whose logical subject — the experiencer — stands in the accusative, dative, or genitive instead of the nominative, with the verb frozen in 3rd-person singular. mér finnst, mig langar, mér er kalt: why 'I' is so often mér or mig, not ég.
- Dative-Subject Verbs: mér finnst, mér líkar, mér tekstB1 — The family of Icelandic verbs whose grammatical subject is in the DATIVE — finnast 'think', líka 'like', takast 'manage', leiðast 'be bored', batna 'recover', detta í hug 'occur to', and the vera-kalt/heitt feeling phrases — with the crucial rule that the verb agrees with the nominative THEME, not with the dative experiencer, so it can be plural while 'mér' stays singular.
- Accusative-Subject Verbs: mig langar, mig vantar, mig dreymirB1 — The family of Icelandic verbs whose grammatical subject is in the ACCUSATIVE: langa 'want/fancy' (mig langar í / að), vanta 'need/lack' (mig vantar), dreyma 'dream' (mig dreymir), gruna 'suspect' (mig grunar), minna 'recall/seem' (mig minnir), and the ache verbs verkja/svíða — where the experiencer is accusative (mig, þig, hann, hana, okkur) and the verb is frozen in the 3rd person singular, often with the object of desire in a further case after a preposition (mig langar í kaffi).
- langa (to want / long for)A2 — The impersonal accusative-subject verb langa (mig langar / mig langaði): the experiencer is in the ACCUSATIVE while the verb stays frozen in the 3sg langar, plus langa í + accusative for things, langa að + infinitive for actions, and the contrast with vilja.
- vanta (to lack / need)A2 — The impersonal double-accusative verb vanta (mig vantar / mig vantaði): both the experiencer AND the thing lacked are in the ACCUSATIVE, the verb stays frozen at 3sg vantar, the þágufallssýki 'mér vantar' dialectal error, and the contrast with þurfa 'need to do'.
- Case Errors: Prepositions and ObjectsB1 — A catalogue of the most frequent Icelandic case-assignment errors — wrong case after a preposition, wrong object case with dative-governing verbs, and missing the motion-vs-location switch — all traceable to one missing habit: asking what case the word assigns.