Wh-Questions: hvað, hver, hvar, hvenær, af hverju

A wh-question asks for information rather than a yes or no: what, who, where, when, how, why. In Icelandic you build one by putting the question word at the very front and then placing the finite verb in second position — the V2 rule. There is no helper "do," exactly as with yes/no questions. This page walks through the full set of question words, the V2 syntax that governs them, how prepositions behave, the "why" synonyms, and the single most useful frozen question in the language: Hvernig hefurðu það? ("How are you?").

The question words at a glance

A pronunciation note worth flagging early: the hv- cluster is pronounced [kv] in standard Icelandic, so hvað sounds like "kvath," hver like "kver." (A minority of speakers, mainly in the south, keep an [hw] sound, but [kv] is the norm.) The spelling stays hv- regardless.

V2: the wh-word fronts, the verb comes second

The governing rule is verb-second (V2): whatever opens the clause, the finite verb is the second element. In a wh-question the question word fills the first slot, so the finite verb comes immediately after it, and the subject follows the verb. This is the same engine as in statements — it is just that a question word, rather than the subject, occupies the opening slot.

In each, the verb (heitir, býrð, kemur) sits second, directly after the question word — never after the subject. English speakers must resist the instinct to keep subject-then-verb order: it is Hvað heitir þú? ("what are-called you"), not Hvað þú heitir.

hver declines — and don't confuse it with hvað or hvor

Hver ("who / which one") is the one question word that changes form for case, because it stands in for a person or chosen item and so takes whatever case the verb or preposition assigns. The masculine singular runs hver (nominative) → hvern (accusative) → hverjum (dative) → hvers (genitive). It also has feminine and neuter forms (hver / hverja / hverri / hverrar; neuter hvert / hvert / hverju / hvers). Choosing the right case is the same skill as choosing it for any noun — covered in depth on the interrogative-pronouns page; here, just know that the form bends.

Two confusions are worth heading off. hver vs. hvað: hver asks "who / which one" (picking a person or a member of a set), while hvað asks "what" (a thing or content). And hver vs. hvor: hver picks from many, but hvor picks from exactly two ("which of the two?"). English collapses all of this into "which," so the choice has to be made consciously.

Prepositions: front them with the question word, or strand them

When the wh-word is the object of a preposition, Icelandic strongly prefers to front the preposition together with its object — pied-piping, in the jargon. So "Who did you talk to?" is most naturally Við hvern talaðir þú? ("With whom did you talk?"), with við dragged to the front alongside hvern. Stranding the preposition at the end (Hvern talaðir þú við?) is possible and heard in speech, but it is less common and feels more colloquial than the fronted version. Note that the preposition still governs the case of the wh-word — við takes the accusative, so it is hvern, not hver.

English overwhelmingly strands ("Who did you talk to?") and treats fronting ("To whom …") as stiff. Icelandic is the reverse: fronting is the default, stranding the marked option. Train yourself to lead with the preposition.

The "why" trio: af hverju, hvers vegna, hví

Icelandic offers three ways to say "why," differing in register, not meaning. Af hverju (literally "off what") is the everyday spoken form (informal/neutral). Hvers vegna ("by reason of what") is neutral and common in writing (neutral/formal). Hví is short, old, and (literary) — you'll meet it in poetry and elevated prose, rarely in conversation. All three take normal V2 order.

hve / hversu: "how" + an adjective

To ask "how + adjective" — how old, how big, how often — you use hve or hversu before the adjective or adverb. Hve gamall ert þú? ("How old are you?"). In casual speech people very often replace this with hvað (Hvað ertu gamall?), which is fully idiomatic and extremely common; hve/hversu feels slightly more careful or formal.

The essential frozen question: Hvernig hefurðu það?

Here is the question every learner needs on day one, and the one most word-lists fail to give whole. "How are you?" is Hvernig hefurðu það? — literally "How have you it?" It is built on the verb hafa ("to have"), not vera ("to be"), with a dummy það ("it") as the object and the clitic -ðu (hefur þú → hefurðu) baked in. You don't analyse it — you memorise it as a unit. The typical reply is Allt gott / Bara fínt / Allt í lagi ("All good / Just fine / All right").

Embedded wh-questions

When a wh-question is tucked inside a larger sentence ("I don't know where he is"), it becomes a subordinate clause and loses the V2 inversion — the subject comes before the verb, as in any subordinate clause: Ég veit ekki hvar hann er ("I don't know where he is"), not …hvar er hann. This contrast (main-clause inversion vs. subordinate non-inversion) is a reliable signal of which kind of clause you're in.

Common Mistakes

The verb is glued to second position; it can't wait until after the subject.

The greeting is the frozen Hvernig hefurðu það? ("how have-you it"), never a literal "how are you."

Hvað is "what" (things/content); a person is hver. And from two options it would be hvor.

Hver declines: við governs the accusative hvern, and the preposition is best fronted with it.

Key Takeaways

• Wh-questions front the question word and put the finite verb second (V2): Hvar býrð þú?, Hvenær kemurðu? — no "do."
• The core set: hvað (what), hver (who/which, declines), hvar/hvert/hvaðan (where at/to/from), hvenær (when), hvernig (how), af hverju / hvers vegna / hví (why), hve/hversu (how + adjective).
• Don't mix up hvað (thing), hver (person/many), and hvor (one of two).
• Front the preposition with the wh-word (Við hvern …?); stranding (Hvern … við?) is possible but colloquial — and the preposition sets the case.
• "How are you?" is the frozen Hvernig hefurðu það? — hafa
  • dummy það
    • clitic, memorised whole.
• Embedded wh-clauses drop the inversion: Ég veit ekki hvar hann er (subject before verb).