Family talk is one of the densest grammar workouts a beginner will meet, because in a single breath you have to inflect kinship nouns with wildly irregular plurals (bróðir → bræður, móðir → mæður), agree 1–4 numerals for gender (tvo bræður but eina systur), and place the possessive after the noun (mamma mín, not mín mamma). Below is a realistic exchange between two acquaintances getting to know each other, glossed line by line, then unpacked: eiga + accusative, the post-nominal possessive, the irregular plurals, the patronymic naming system, and numeral agreement.
The dialogue
Two colleagues, Kristín and Davíð, chat over lunch.
| Speaker | Icelandic | English |
|---|---|---|
| Kristín | Áttu stóra fjölskyldu, Davíð? | Do you have a big family, Davíð? |
| Davíð | Já, frekar. Ég á tvo bræður og eina systur. | Yes, fairly. I have two brothers and one sister. |
| Kristín | Hvað heita þau? | What are they called? |
| Davíð | Bræður mínir heita Jón og Ari, og systir mín heitir Edda. | My brothers are called Jón and Ari, and my sister is called Edda. |
| Kristín | Búa foreldrar þínir í Reykjavík? | Do your parents live in Reykjavík? |
| Davíð | Mamma mín býr þar, en pabbi minn býr á Akureyri. En þú? | My mum lives there, but my dad lives in Akureyri. And you? |
| Kristín | Ég á eina systur. Mæðurnar okkar eru reyndar systur! | I have one sister. Our mothers are actually sisters! |
| Davíð | Nei, hættu nú! Þá erum við frændsystkin. | No way! Then we're cousins. |
| Kristín | Akkúrat. En við berum samt ekki sama eftirnafn — ég heiti Jónsdóttir. | Exactly. But we still don't share a surname — I'm Jónsdóttir. |
| Davíð | Nei, ég er Ólafsdóttir... nei, fyrirgefðu, Ólafsson! Pabbi minn heitir Ólafur. | No, I'm Ólafsdóttir... no, sorry, Ólafsson! My dad's name is Ólafur. |
Three threads run through this: eiga ("have") + accusative, the post-nominal possessive (mamma mín), and the irregular kinship plurals that surface together with numeral agreement. Let's take them in order.
Ég á … — eiga + accusative for "having" relatives
To say you "have" siblings, the verb is eiga ("to have, own"), and what you have goes in the accusative. So ég á tvo bræður = "I have two brothers." Note the conjugation is irregular: ég á, þú átt, hann á — and the question form is the contracted áttu ("do you have?" = átt þú).
Áttu stóra fjölskyldu?
Do you have a big family? (áttu = átt þú; stóra fjölskyldu = accusative object)
Ég á tvo bræður og eina systur.
I have two brothers and one sister. (eiga + accusative; note the gendered numerals)
The object is accusative throughout: fjölskyldu ("family," from fjölskylda, feminine), bræður, systur are all accusative forms. (More on eiga: it's the same "have" used for owning things and, in eiga að, for "be supposed to.")
tvo bræður vs eina systur — 1–4 numerals agree for gender
Here is where two difficulties collide. Icelandic numerals 1 through 4 change form for gender — and they must match the gender of the noun counted. Bróðir ("brother") is masculine; systir ("sister") is feminine. So in one short sentence Davíð uses two different forms of the numerals:
- tvo bræður — "two brothers": tvo is the masculine accusative of "two."
- eina systur — "one sister": eina is the feminine accusative of "one."
If he'd had two sisters it would be tvær systur (feminine "two"); two children — barn is neuter — would be tvö börn. The "one/two/three/four" forms for the three genders:
| Masculine (acc) | Feminine (acc) | Neuter (acc) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| one | einn | eina | eitt |
| two | tvo | tvær | tvö |
| three | þrjá | þrjár | þrjú |
| four | fjóra | fjórar | fjögur |
Ég á tvær systur og einn bróður.
I have two sisters and one brother. (tvær f. + systur, einn m. + bróður)
Þau eiga þrjú börn.
They have three children. (þrjú — neuter 'three' — with börn, neuter)
(Full numeral agreement: numbers/one-to-four.)
bræður, mæður — the irregular kinship plurals
The closest family words have irregular plurals that you simply have to memorise — they don't follow a tidy pattern, and many shift their vowel (an i-umlaut):
| Singular | Plural | Gender · Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| bróðir | bræður | kk · brother(s) |
| systir | systur | kvk · sister(s) |
| móðir | mæður | kvk · mother(s) |
| faðir | feður | kk · father(s) |
| dóttir | dætur | kvk · daughter(s) |
| sonur | synir | kk · son(s) |
| barn | börn | hk · child(ren) |
Notice the vowel changes: ó → æ in bróðir → bræður and móðir → mæður; a → ö in barn → börn. These are not optional or analogical — they're fixed historical forms, and the regularised versions you might guess (bróðirar, móðirar) are simply wrong.
Also irregular are the accusative singulars: bróðir → bróður, systir → systur, móðir → móður. That's why "I have two brothers" is tvo bræður and "one sister" is eina systur.
Mæðurnar okkar eru systur.
Our mothers are sisters. (mæðurnar = irregular plural mæður + definite article; systur = plural)
Bræður mínir heita Jón og Ari.
My brothers are called Jón and Ari. (bræður = irregular plural of bróðir)
Useful collective words: foreldrar ("parents," used in the plural), systkini ("siblings," neuter), and frændsystkin ("cousins").
Búa foreldrar þínir í Reykjavík?
Do your parents live in Reykjavík? (foreldrar = 'parents'; þínir = post-nominal possessive)
mamma mín — the possessive goes after the noun
In English the possessive comes first: my mum. In Icelandic, with kinship and personal terms, the possessive normally comes after the noun: mamma mín, pabbi minn, bróðir minn. And it agrees with the noun in gender, number and case — so it's mín with feminine mamma, but minn with masculine pabbi.
Mamma mín býr þar, en pabbi minn býr á Akureyri.
My mum lives there, but my dad lives in Akureyri. (mamma mín f. / pabbi minn m. — possessive follows the noun and agrees)
Afi minn býr enn úti á landi.
My grandfather still lives out in the countryside. (afi minn — masculine, possessive after the noun)
This post-nominal slot is the default, neutral position for "my/your" with family words; putting the possessive in front (mín mamma) sounds marked or emphatic and is a classic transfer error. (Full possessive system: pronouns/possessive-overview.)
A note on names: the patronymic system
Davíð's slip at the end rests on a real feature: Icelanders mostly have no inherited surname. Instead, your last name is built from your father's (or mother's) first name plus -son ("son") or -dóttir ("daughter"). Davíð's father is named Ólafur, so Davíð is Ólafsson and his sister Edda is Ólafsdóttir — the -s- is the genitive of Ólafur ("Ólaf's son/daughter"). This is exactly why the cousins don't share a surname: Kristín's father is a different man (a Jón), so she is Jónsdóttir, not Ólafsdóttir. A patronymic tracks one person's father — not the wider family — and it changes every generation, which is why family trees can't be read off surnames the way English speakers expect.
Pabbi minn heitir Ólafur, svo ég er Ólafsson.
My dad's name is Ólafur, so I'm Ólafsson. (patronymic built on the father's first name)
Vocabulary and forms
| Icelandic | Gloss | Note |
|---|---|---|
| eiga (á, átt, á) | to have |
|
| fjölskylda (kvk) | family | acc. fjölskyldu |
| bróðir (kk) | brother | acc. bróður, pl. bræður |
| systir (kvk) | sister | acc. systur, pl. systur |
| móðir / mamma (kvk) | mother / mum | pl. mæður |
| faðir / pabbi (kk) | father / dad | pl. feður |
| sonur (kk) | son | pl. synir |
| dóttir (kvk) | daughter | pl. dætur |
| barn (hk) | child | pl. börn |
| foreldrar (kk pl) | parents | plural-only in this sense |
| systkini (hk) | sibling(s) | neuter; á systkini |
| afi (kk) / amma (kvk) | grandfather / grandmother | afi minn / amma mín |
| minn / mín / mitt | my (m/f/n) | post-nominal; agrees with noun |
| þinn / þín / þitt | your (m/f/n) | foreldrar þínir |
| -son / -dóttir | -son / -daughter | patronymic suffix (genitive of father's name) |
Things English speakers get wrong here
❌ mín mamma / minn pabbi
Pre-nominal possessive — with family words the possessive goes after the noun.
✅ mamma mín / pabbi minn
my mum / my dad
❌ Ég á tvær bræður.
Wrong numeral gender — bróðir is masculine, so 'two' is tvo, not the feminine tvær.
✅ Ég á tvo bræður.
I have two brothers.
❌ tvo bróðirar / tvær móðirar
Regularised plurals — these are irregular: bræður and mæður.
✅ tvo bræður / tvær mæður
two brothers / two mothers
❌ Ég á eina systir.
Wrong case — eiga takes the accusative, so systir becomes systur.
✅ Ég á eina systur.
I have one sister.
Key Takeaways
- "Have (relatives)" is eiga
- accusative: ég á tvo bræður; the question form is áttu.
- Numerals 1–4 agree for gender — tvo bræður (m.), tvær systur (f.), tvö börn (n.) — so a single family sentence can use all three.
- The closest kinship nouns have irregular plurals: bróðir → bræður, móðir → mæður, barn → börn. Memorise them; don't regularise.
- Family possessives go after the noun and agree in gender: mamma mín, pabbi minn, systir mín.
- Icelandic surnames are patronymics (-son / -dóttir built on the father's name), so they change every generation.
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Possessive Pronouns: minn, þinn, sinn and hans/hennarA2 — Icelandic's split possessive system — the agreeing, postposed possessives minn, þinn and sinn that decline like adjectives, versus the frozen genitives hans, hennar, þeirra, okkar, ykkar that never change.
- Declining 1-4: einn, tveir, þrír, fjórirA2 — The full gender-and-case paradigms of the four Icelandic numerals that inflect — einn/ein/eitt, tveir/tvær/tvö, þrír/þrjár/þrjú, fjórir/fjórar/fjögur — including the oblique cases (acc, dat tveimur/þremur/fjórum, gen tveggja/þriggja/fjögurra) that drive prepositions and compounds like þriggja herbergja íbúð.