Coordination and Ellipsis | Icelandic Grammar

When you join two clauses with og ("and"), en ("but"), or eða ("or"), Icelandic does not make you repeat everything the two clauses share. You can leave out a repeated verb, a repeated subject, or a shared object — and good Icelandic prefers that you do, because repeating recoverable material reads as clumsy. This page is about that omission: the three main ellipsis patterns under coordination (gapping, subject ellipsis, shared objects), the conditions that license them, and the one thing English speakers consistently get wrong — that the V2 rule still governs the second conjunct, so what you can drop and what order the remainder takes are not independent. (Coordinating conjunctions themselves are on conjunctions/coordinating; the V2 rule on syntax/v2-word-order; the broader inventory of deletion types on complex/ellipsis-types.)

The governing principle: drop what's recoverable, keep it parallel

All coordination ellipsis rests on one idea: you may omit material in the second conjunct if it is identical to, and recoverable from, the first, and if the two conjuncts are structurally parallel. "Recoverable" means the listener can reconstruct the missing word with certainty from the first clause; "parallel" means the two halves line up — same kind of structure, same slots. Where those two conditions hold, ellipsis is natural and often obligatory in good style; where they fail, you must spell the material out.

Jón drekkur kaffi og María te.

Jón drinks coffee and María (drinks) tea. — the second verb drekkur is gapped because it's identical to and recoverable from the first.

Ég tók lestina og hún strætó.

I took the train and she (took) the bus. — gapping again: tók is deleted in the second conjunct.

In both, the deleted verb is exactly the verb of the first conjunct, and the two halves are perfectly parallel (subject + verb + object // subject + ⌀ + object). That is the textbook environment for gapping.

Gapping: deleting the repeated verb

Gapping deletes the (finite) verb from the second conjunct when it is identical to the verb in the first, leaving behind the subject and the other arguments. It is the construction in Jón drekkur kaffi og María te. Icelandic gaps readily — more readily than casual English, which often keeps an auxiliary ("María does too") rather than leaving a bare María te. The remaining material in the gapped conjunct stands on its own: a subject and whatever object or complement contrasts with the first clause.

Anna ætlar að keyra norður og við að fljúga.

Anna's going to drive north and we (are going) to fly. — the whole ætla að-frame is gapped, leaving við ... að fljúga.

Hann talar þýsku reiprennandi og systir hans frönsku.

He speaks German fluently and his sister (speaks) French. — talar gapped; the contrasting object frönsku remains.

Pabbi eldaði matinn og mamma bakaði eftirréttinn.

Dad cooked the food and Mum baked the dessert. — note: NO gapping here, because the verbs differ (eldaði vs bakaði); both must appear.

That last example marks the boundary: gapping needs the verbs to be the same. When the two clauses have different verbs, there is nothing to gap, and both verbs stay. Learners sometimes try to compress two different verbs into one; you can't.

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Gapping deletes a repeated verb, not just any verb. Jón drekkur kaffi og María te works because both verbs would be drekkur. If the second clause has a different verb (bakaði vs eldaði), there's nothing identical to delete — keep both verbs.

Subject ellipsis: dropping the shared subject in the second conjunct

When two coordinated clauses share the same subject, Icelandic routinely drops the subject from the second conjunct and lets the two verb phrases hang off one subject: Hann kom inn og settist niður ("He came in and sat down"). This is extremely common and stylistically preferred — repeating hann would sound heavy and almost childish.

Hann kom inn og settist niður við gluggann.

He came in and sat down by the window. — one subject hann governs both verbs; the second hann is dropped.

Hún opnaði tölvuna, kíkti á póstinn og lokaði henni aftur.

She opened her laptop, checked her email and closed it again. — a chain of three verb phrases under one subject hún.

Ég ætla að fá mér kaffi og lesa blaðið.

I'm going to grab a coffee and read the paper. — shared subject ég, shared ætla að; only the second VP differs.

Here is the subtle, important part — the place ellipsis and word order interact. Subject ellipsis is easy precisely because the second conjunct then begins with the verb, which satisfies V2 by itself. When you drop the subject, the verb is the first pronounced element of the conjunct, and V2 is happy. But the moment you front anything else in the second conjunct, you can no longer silently drop the subject — V2 now demands a subject in second position. So Hann kom inn og settist niður is fine, but if you front a time adverbial into the second conjunct, the subject must reappear and invert: Hann kom inn og svo settist hann niður ("He came in and then he sat down"). The interaction is real: what you may omit depends on what you put first.

Hann kom inn og svo settist hann niður.

He came in and then sat down. — fronting svo into the second conjunct forces V2, so the subject hann reappears after the verb: settist hann.

Hún hringdi í mig og seinna sendi hún tölvupóst.

She called me and later sent an email. — fronting seinna means the second conjunct needs an overt subject in V2 position: sendi hún.

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Subject ellipsis works because the verb then comes first and satisfies V2 on its own. The instant you front something else into the second conjunct (svo, seinna, í gær...), V2 demands a subject in second position — so the dropped subject has to come back, now after the verb: ...og svo settist hann niður. Ellipsis and word order are not independent.

Icelandic also shares material at the right edge: two verbs (or two whole clauses) can govern a single object stated once. Hann keypti og las bókina ("He bought and read the book") shares the object bókina across both verbs. This works cleanly when the shared element sits at the right boundary of both conjuncts and bears a role both verbs can assign.

Hann keypti og las bókina á einni helgi.

He bought and read the book in a single weekend. — the object bókina is shared by both verbs keypti and las.

Þau elska og dá þessa borg.

They love and adore this city. — the object þessa borg is shared across the two coordinated verbs.

A caution unique to Icelandic: shared objects work best when both verbs assign the same case to the object. Keypti and las both take the accusative, so bókina (accusative) serves both. If the two verbs would assign different cases — one accusative, one dative — you cannot share a single form, because the noun can't be in two cases at once. Then you must repeat with a pronoun in the right case. This is a trap English avoids only because English has no case to clash.

Hann sá bílinn og stýrði honum heim.

He saw the car and drove it home. — sjá takes accusative (bílinn) but stýra takes dative, so you can't share one form; the second clause needs the dative pronoun honum.

En and eða behave the same way

Ellipsis under coordination is not special to og. The adversative en ("but") and the disjunctive eða ("or") license the same gapping, subject ellipsis, and sharing, under the same parallelism and V2 conditions.

Ég vildi fara út en nennti því ekki.

I wanted to go out but couldn't be bothered. — subject ég shared across en; second verb's subject dropped, verb-first satisfies V2.

Viltu kaffi eða te?

Do you want coffee or tea? — the verb viltu is shared; only the contrasting objects remain after eða.

Common Mistakes

❌ Jón drekkur kaffi og María drekkur te.

Over-repetitive — when the verb is identical, gap it: Jón drekkur kaffi og María te. Repeating drekkur reads as clumsy in Icelandic.

✅ Jón drekkur kaffi og María te.

Jón drinks coffee and María tea.

Spelling out a recoverable repeated verb is not wrong grammar, but it is poor style — Icelandic prefers to gap. English's habit of keeping a "does"/auxiliary makes learners under-gap.

❌ Hann kom inn og svo hann settist niður.

V2 violation in the second conjunct — fronting svo means the verb must be second: og svo settist hann niður.

✅ Hann kom inn og svo settist hann niður.

He came in and then sat down.

This is the core ellipsis–word-order trap. Once you front svo into the second conjunct, you can no longer keep the subject before the verb; V2 forces settist hann.

❌ Hann sá og hjálpaði manninn.

Case clash — sjá takes accusative (manninn) but hjálpa takes dative (manninum); one form can't serve both. Repeat with the right case: Hann sá manninn og hjálpaði honum.

✅ Hann sá manninn og hjálpaði honum.

He saw the man and helped him.

You can only share an object across two verbs if they assign it the same case. Different cases (accusative vs dative) block sharing — restate it in the correct case.

❌ Pabbi eldaði og mamma matinn.

Nothing to gap — the verbs differ (the second clause has no verb of its own and can't borrow eldaði if a different action is meant). Each clause needs its own verb when actions differ.

✅ Pabbi eldaði matinn og mamma lagði á borð.

Dad cooked the food and Mum set the table.

Gapping only deletes an identical verb. If the second clause expresses a different action, it must carry its own verb; you can't gap your way out of two different verbs.

Key Takeaways

Under coordination (og, en, eða), omit material that is identical to and recoverable from the first conjunct, provided the two halves are structurally parallel.
Gapping deletes a repeated verb: Jón drekkur kaffi og María te. Different verbs can't be gapped — keep both.
Subject ellipsis drops a shared subject in the second conjunct (Hann kom inn og settist niður) — but this works because the verb then comes first and satisfies V2. Front anything else and the subject must return and invert: ...og svo settist hann niður.
Shared objects work only when both verbs assign the same case; a case clash (accusative vs dative) blocks sharing, so restate the pronoun in the right case.
Ellipsis and word order are interlocked in Icelandic, because V2 still governs the second conjunct — the single biggest difference from caseless, non-V2 English.

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