við/þið, the Lost Dual, and Inclusive 'we'

Icelandic says við for "we" and þið for "you (plural)". For everyday purposes that is the whole story: two pronouns, used for any group of two or more, no fuss. But behind that simplicity sits a piece of history that still trips up learners who reach for old textbooks. Icelandic once had a dual — separate pronouns for "we two / you two" as opposed to "we many / you many" — and it also had the now-archaic vér / þér, including þér as a "polite you" that some courses still teach. Both systems have collapsed: modern Icelandic uses við and þið for everything, and vér / þér survive only in ceremonial, religious or historical language. This page sorts the living forms from the dead ones, so you know exactly what to say — and what to retire. (The third-person plurals þeir / þær / þau and their genders belong to the full personal-pronoun paradigm and are covered there.)

The living forms: við and þið

In modern spoken and written Icelandic, við means "we" and þið means "you (plural)", for any number of people from two upwards. There is no longer a separate word for "we two". If you and one friend did something, you say við; if you and twenty friends did it, you also say við. Likewise þið addresses two people or two hundred.

These pronouns decline through the cases like the other personal pronouns — við / okkur / okkur / okkar and þið / ykkur / ykkur / ykkar — and that full paradigm sits on the personal-pronoun page. The point here is just the number logic: one word each, covering all plurality.

The lost dual: what merged into við and þið

Here is the historical layer. Old Norse — and early Icelandic — distinguished two kinds of "we" and "you":

• a dual, for exactly two: vit "we two", þit "you two";
• a plural proper, for three or more: vér "we (many)", þér "you (many)".

Over the centuries the system reorganised. The old dual forms won out as the everyday plurals — vit / þit became modern við / þið and simply took over the job of "we / you" for any number. The old plurals vér / þér were squeezed out of ordinary use and survive only in a narrow, elevated register. So when you say við today, you are historically using what was once the "we two" word, now generalised. The dual is not so much "lost" as promoted: it ate the plural and dropped its restriction to two.

That last example shows how modern Icelandic recovers the "exactly two" meaning when it needs it: not with a special pronoun but by adding the numeral — við tvö "we two", þið tvö "you two". The dual distinction migrated from the pronoun into ordinary counting.

The archaic vér and þér

The displaced plurals vér "we" and þér "you (pl.)" did not vanish entirely. They live on in three places, all marked and none of them everyday conversation:

• Religious and liturgical language — hymns, prayers, scripture, and the older Bible translations are full of vér and þér.
• Ceremonial and historical/legal formulas — old proclamations, the royal "we", solemn declarations.
• Deliberately archaic or literary style — an author reaching for an antique, elevated tone.

Note that vér and þér carry their accents — the é is part of the word and never dropped. Vér is "we"; þér is "you (pl.)" (and, historically, also the polite singular — see below).

If you use vér in a café, you will sound as if you have stepped out of a saga or a sermon. It is not wrong — it is simply (archaic) / (literary) / (religious), and using it in ordinary conversation is a register error, not a grammar one. Recognise it when you read it; do not deploy it to sound formal.

Retiring the myth of þér as "polite you"

This is the part that needs to be said plainly, because old teaching materials still get it wrong. Many older textbooks — and the lingering memory of how German, French, and Danish work — tell learners that þér is a polite singular "you", a respectful way to address one person. In living Icelandic, this is not true. Icelandic has effectively no T–V politeness distinction. There is one word for "you" addressed to one person — þú — and you use it with everyone: your friend, your grandmother, your boss, a government minister, a stranger on the street.

The polite þér did exist — it was used in formal address into the twentieth century — but it has essentially died out. Modern Icelanders address even high officials as þú; a stray þér directed at a single person now sounds stilted, antique, or faintly absurd, not respectful. So you should retire the idea entirely: do not learn þér as a politeness option, and do not switch to it to be courteous. Politeness in Icelandic is carried by word choice, conditional mood, and tone — gætir þú… "could you…", væri hægt að… "would it be possible to…" — never by swapping the pronoun. (How politeness actually works through þú has its own page.)

A spelling-and-meaning footnote: við the pronoun vs við the preposition

One last thing to keep straight on the page. The pronoun við "we" is a homograph of the very common preposition við "at / by / against / with". They are spelled identically — both with the ð (eth) — and are told apart purely by syntax: a pronoun við fills a subject (or appears in eigum við…), while a preposition við governs a following noun phrase.

Context resolves it instantly for a native ear, but learners who meet við in a vocabulary list as "with/at" sometimes get thrown when it shows up as "we". Same spelling, two unrelated words; let the sentence structure tell you which.

Common Mistakes

Reaching for þér to be polite to one person is a transfer error from German/French/Danish. Modern Icelandic has no polite þér; use þú and let the conditional gætir carry the politeness.

vér is not a fancier, more correct "we"; it is an antique form confined to liturgy and proclamations. Everyday "we" is always við.

The old dual vit "we two" no longer exists as a separate pronoun. Use við for any number — add tvö if you specifically mean "the two of us".

þið is the subject form; like all personal pronouns it changes in the object cases — here accusative ykkur. Don't leave it frozen the way English keeps "you" unchanged.

Even when you specify "you two", the pronoun þið is plural and takes a plural verb (eruð), not the singular er.

Key Takeaways

• Modern Icelandic uses við "we" and þið "you (pl.)" for any number of people; there is no longer a separate dual pronoun.
• The Old Norse dual vit / þit "we two / you two" was promoted into today's við / þið, taking over as the general plurals. For "the two of us" add a numeral: við tvö.
• The old plurals vér "we" and þér "you (pl.)" are now (archaic) — confined to religious, ceremonial, and literary language. They keep their accent (é); recognise them in reading, don't use them in conversation.
• Retire the idea of "polite þér". Modern Icelandic has no T–V distinction: everyone, including officials, is þú. Politeness comes from phrasing (conditionals, softeners), not from a special pronoun.
• The pronoun við "we" and the preposition við "at / by / with" are homographs distinguished only by syntax.