After the strong masculines, the weak masculines are a genuine relief. You recognise one instantly: it ends in -i in the nominative singular — tími ("time, hour"), skóli ("school"), bóndi ("farmer"), frændi ("male relative"), penni ("pen"). And the payoff for that little -i is enormous: in the singular, the accusative, dative and genitive are all the same form, ending in -a. There is no strong -s genitive, no dative -i to remember, nothing to choose. The singular barely inflects. This page gives the full paradigm through tími and skóli, shows that three of the four singular cases are literally identical, and flags the one irregular member you must know — bóndi, whose plural is bændur.
The model: tími
Here is tími in full. The thing to stare at is the singular column:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nefnifall (nom.) | tími | tímar |
| Þolfall (acc.) | tíma | tíma |
| Þágufall (dat.) | tíma | tímum |
| Eignarfall (gen.) | tíma | tíma |
Look at the singular: tími, tíma, tíma, tíma. The nominative ends in -i; the accusative, dative and genitive all end in -a and are indistinguishable. This three-way syncretism is the defining feature of the weak masculine. Where a strong masculine forces you to pick between hest (acc.), hesti (dat.) and hests (gen.), the weak masculine gives you one form — tíma — for all three.
Tíminn flýgur þegar maður er að skemmta sér.
Time flies when you're having fun. Nominative singular 'tími' (here tíminn, with the article) — the -i ending.
Ég hef engan tíma í dag.
I have no time today. Accusative singular 'tíma' — the -a form, object of 'hafa'.
Eftir stuttan tíma kom hann aftur.
After a short time he came back. Accusative singular 'tíma' after 'eftir' — same -a form again.
Það tekur mig korter að komast í vinnuna á þessum tíma dags.
It takes me fifteen minutes to get to work at this time of day. Dative singular 'tíma' after 'á' — identical to the accusative; and 'dags' is the genitive of 'dagur'.
The plural: tímar, tíma, tímum, tíma
The plural is also gentle. Nominative tímar (the same -ar plural as the strong hestar), accusative and genitive tíma, dative tímum. Note that the accusative and genitive plural (tíma) coincide with the whole oblique singular (tíma) — so the bare form tíma is doing a lot of work across the paradigm.
Við lifum á erfiðum tímum.
We live in difficult times. Dative plural 'tímum' after 'á' — the -um ending.
Ég man þetta frá gamla daga— afsakaðu, gömlum tímum.
I remember this from the old days — sorry, old times. Natural correction mid-sentence; 'tímum' is the dative plural.
The same pattern: skóli
Skóli ("school") declines exactly like tími. Two nouns in the same frame make the template stick:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nefnifall (nom.) | skóli | skólar |
| Þolfall (acc.) | skóla | skóla |
| Þágufall (dat.) | skóla | skólum |
| Eignarfall (gen.) | skóla | skóla |
Same shape throughout: skóli, skóla, skóla, skóla in the singular, skólar, skóla, skólum, skóla in the plural.
Krakkarnir ganga í skóla á hverjum degi.
The kids go to school every day. Accusative singular 'skóla' after 'í' (motion, accusative) — the -a form.
Hann er kennari við stóran skóla í Reykjavík.
He's a teacher at a big school in Reykjavík. Accusative singular 'skóla' after 'við'.
No -s genitive: the strong/weak split in one stroke
The most important contrast to internalise: a weak masculine genitive singular is -a (tíma, skóla), never -s. The -s genitive is the badge of the strong masculines (hests, bíls, dags). Mixing them up — bolting -s onto a weak noun — is the single most common weak-masculine error for English and German speakers, who expect a possessive -s.
Stjórnandi skólans er nýr.
The school's head is new. Genitive singular 'skóla' (here skólans, with the article) — note the genitive is 'skóla', so with the article it is 'skólans', NOT 'skólasins'.
Lengd tímans fór eftir umferðinni.
The length of the time depended on the traffic. Genitive singular 'tíma' (here tímans) — again no extra -s.
The irregular member: bóndi → bændur
Most weak masculines have a tame, regular plural in -ar (tímar, skólar, pennar). A small group of old kinship and agent nouns is irregular, and the one you must know is bóndi ("farmer"). Its plural is bændur — a completely different shape, with i-umlaut (ó → æ) and a -ur ending instead of -ar:
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nefnifall (nom.) | bóndi | bændur |
| Þolfall (acc.) | bónda | bændur |
| Þágufall (dat.) | bónda | bændum |
| Eignarfall (gen.) | bónda | bænda |
The singular is perfectly regular and weak — bóndi, bónda, bónda, bónda, exactly the tími pattern. It is only the plural that goes rogue: bændur (nom. = acc.), bændum, bænda, all with the umlauted æ. The same irregularity hits frændi → frændur ("kinsmen", though here without a vowel change since the stem already has æ). Treat bændur as a vocabulary item you simply memorise.
Bóndinn á þrjú hundruð kindur.
The farmer has three hundred sheep. Nominative singular 'bóndi' — regular weak singular.
Margir bændur mótmæltu nýju lögunum.
Many farmers protested the new law. Nominative plural 'bændur' — the irregular umlaut plural, not 'bóndar'.
Ríkið greiðir bændum styrki.
The state pays farmers subsidies. Dative plural 'bændum' (from 'bóndi') — æ throughout the plural.
A note on a-stems and rounding
A weak masculine whose stem contains an a will round it to ö in the dative plural, like every other class. Tangi ("spit of land, headland") has the dative plural töngum (tang- + -um → töngum). This is rare among weak masculines (most have í, ó, e, ó stems), but the rule is the same u-umlaut you meet everywhere: any a before a u-syllable becomes ö.
Bærinn stendur á einum af mörgum töngum við fjörðinn.
The town stands on one of many headlands by the fjord. Dative plural 'töngum' (from 'tangi') — the u-umlaut a → ö.
Common Mistakes
❌ -s genitive on a weak noun: 'stjórnandi skólas'
Incorrect — weak masculines have no -s genitive; the genitive of 'skóli' is 'skóla' (skólans with the article).
✅ stjórnandi skólans
the school's head — genitive 'skóla' + article -ns.
❌ Over-differentiating the singular: a special dative 'tími' or 'tími'
Incorrect — the accusative, dative and genitive singular are all 'tíma'; there is nothing extra to add.
✅ tími (nom.), tíma (acc./dat./gen.)
One -a form covers all three oblique singular cases.
❌ Regular plural for bóndi: 'margir bóndar'
Incorrect — 'bóndi' has the irregular umlaut plural 'bændur', not 'bóndar'.
✅ margir bændur
many farmers — the irregular plural 'bændur'.
❌ Treating an -i masculine as strong: 'ég sá tím' for the accusative
Incorrect — the weak accusative keeps -a (tíma); it doesn't strip to a bare stem like the strong 'hest'.
✅ Ég sá engan tíma til þess.
I saw no time for it. Accusative 'tíma' — the -a form, not a bare stem.
❌ No rounding in the dative plural of an a-stem: 'á mörgum tangum'
Incorrect — the -um plural rounds a → ö: 'töngum', not 'tangum'.
✅ á mörgum töngum
on many headlands — dative plural 'töngum'.
Key Takeaways
- A masculine noun is weak if its nominative singular ends in -i (tími, skóli, bóndi).
- The oblique singular is all -a: accusative = dative = genitive = tíma. Only the nominative (-i) differs.
- There is no -s genitive — that belongs to the strong masculines. Weak genitive = -a (skóla, with article skólans).
- The plural is normally -ar / -a / -um / -a (tímar, tíma, tímum, tíma).
- bóndi is irregular: plural bændur, bændur, bændum, bænda (i-umlaut ó → æ, -ur ending). Memorise it; frændi → frændur behaves the same way.
- A stem a rounds to ö in the dative plural (tangi → töngum).
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Strong Masculine Nouns: OverviewA2 — The strong masculine declensions — the largest noun group, marked by a genitive singular in -s and a nominative plural in -ar or -ir — with the all-important insight that the -ur of the nominative is an ending, not part of the stem.
- Weak Feminine Nouns: -a type (kona, gata)A2 — The weak feminine declension — nominative singular -a, all oblique singulars -u, nominative plural -ur — drilled through kona and gata, with the u-umlaut a→ö (götum) and the suppletive genitive plural kvenna.
- Grammatical Gender: Masculine, Feminine, NeuterA1 — Icelandic's three grammatical genders, the phonological clues in the nominative ending that predict gender for most nouns, the residue you must simply memorise, and how gender becomes visible through article and adjective agreement.