Yes/No Questions and Answering | Icelandic Grammar

A yes/no question is one that can be answered "yes" or "no." Icelandic forms it by inversion — the finite verb leads the sentence, the subject follows — with no helper verb. That part mirrors older English ("Speak you Icelandic?") more than modern English. The genuinely new thing for an English speaker lies in the answers: Icelandic has three reply particles, not two. Alongside já ("yes") and nei ("no") there is jú, a separate "yes" used only to contradict a negative question. Mastering jú is the real payoff of this page.

Forming the question: verb first

Take the statement, lift the finite verb to the front, and the subject slides in behind it. Nothing is added.

Kemur hún í kvöld?

Is she coming tonight? (statement Hún kemur í kvöld → verb first)

Ert þú þreyttur?

Are you tired? (said to a man)

Borðar þú kjöt?

Do you eat meat?

The verb kemur, ert, borðar simply moves to slot 1. There is no "do," and there is no rise-in-tone-only shortcut — the inversion is obligatory.

The clitic forms: ertu, áttu, viltu

In everyday speech the pronoun þú fuses onto the verb. This is the normal spoken form, not casual sloppiness, so you should recognise and use it.

Written-formal	Spoken (clitic)	Meaning
ert þú	ertu	are you
vilt þú	viltu	do you want
átt þú	áttu	do you have
kemur þú	kemurðu	are you coming

Ertu til í þetta?

Are you up for this? (ertu = ert þú; til í — 'up for')

Viltu kaffi?

Do you want coffee? (viltu = vilt þú)

💡

Rule of thumb: a verb ending in -r takes -ðu (kemur þú → kemurðu); after other endings, add -tu (ert þú → ertu). The fuller ert þú is (formal) or emphatic; ertu is the unmarked everyday form.

Answering: já and nei

For an ordinary (positive) question, you answer with já ("yes") or nei ("no"), often softened with takk ("thanks").

Viltu kaffi? – Já, takk.

Do you want coffee? – Yes, please.

Ertu svangur? – Nei, ég er búinn að borða.

Are you hungry? – No, I've already eaten. (búinn að — 'have finished')

So far this matches English. The twist comes when the question itself is negative.

jú: the "yes" that contradicts a negative question

Here is the feature English lacks. When a question is phrased negatively — "Aren't you coming?", "Don't you want coffee?" — and you want to answer affirmatively (yes, I am / yes, I do), you cannot use já. You must use jú. Já is reserved for affirming a positive question; jú specifically overturns a negative presupposition. This is exactly like French si or German doch: a third, "contradicting" yes.

Talar þú ekki íslensku? – Jú! Ég tala íslensku.

Don't you speak Icelandic? – Yes (I do)! I speak Icelandic. (contradicting the negative → jú)

Viltu ekki kaffi? – Jú, takk!

Don't you want coffee? – Yes, please! (jú overturns 'don't')

Ertu ekki að koma? – Jú, jú, ég er að koma.

Aren't you coming? – Yes, yes, I'm coming. (jú, not já)

The logic is clean once you see it. The negative question carries an assumption ("…so you're not coming, right?"). To affirm despite that assumption — to say "no, actually I am" — Icelandic gives you a dedicated word, jú. To agree with the negative assumption ("right, I'm not"), you use nei.

Question	To affirm the action	To deny the action
Positive: Kemurðu? (Are you coming?)	Já (yes, I am)	Nei (no, I'm not)
Negative: Kemurðu ekki? (Aren't you coming?)	Jú (yes, I am)	Nei (no, I'm not)

Notice the asymmetry that trips up learners: in the negative row, the affirmative answer flips from já to jú, while nei stays nei. So the moment a question contains ekki (or any negation), your "yes" must become jú.

💡

The trigger is simple: if the question is negative and your answer is "yes," use jú, never já. Hearing ekki in the question is your cue. Answering a negative question with já is one of the most audible beginner mistakes.

Answering with a full verb

Icelandic does not echo the auxiliary the way English does ("Yes, I do" / "No, I don't"). You either give the bare particle or repeat the relevant verb. There is no "do" to echo.

Áttu bíl? – Já, ég á bíl. / Nei, ég á ekki bíl.

Do you have a car? – Yes, I have a car. / No, I don't have a car.

Common Mistakes

❌ Talar þú ekki íslensku? – Já.

Incorrect — to affirm against a negative question you must use jú, not já.

✅ Talar þú ekki íslensku? – Jú!

Don't you speak Icelandic? – Yes (I do)!

The presence of ekki in the question forces jú for an affirmative answer.

❌ Viltu kaffi? – Jú, takk.

Incorrect — the question is positive, so 'yes' is já, not jú.

✅ Viltu kaffi? – Já, takk.

Do you want coffee? – Yes, please.

Jú is only for contradicting a negative. A plain positive question takes já.

❌ Gerir þú vilja kaffi?

Incorrect — no 'do'-support; just invert vilt.

✅ Viltu kaffi?

Do you want coffee?

There is no helper verb; the real verb (vilt) inverts, fusing with þú to give viltu.

❌ Þú kemur í kvöld?

Incorrect as a question — you must invert, not just raise your tone.

✅ Kemur þú í kvöld?

Are you coming tonight?

Statement order with rising intonation is not a grammatical yes/no question; the verb must lead.

Key Takeaways

Yes/no questions = inversion: finite verb first, subject second; no "do."
Spoken clitics fuse þú to the verb: ertu, viltu, áttu, kemurðu.
Já = yes (to a positive question); nei = no (to either).
Jú = yes, but only to contradict a negative question (like French si, German doch): Kemurðu ekki? – Jú!
The trigger for jú is a negation (ekki) in the question plus an affirmative answer — recognise ekki and switch.
Icelandic does not echo a "do"-auxiliary in answers; use the bare particle or repeat the real verb.

Now practice Icelandic

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Icelandic→