Annotated Text: Public Notices and Signs

A one-word Icelandic sign is a tiny grammar lesson in disguise. Opið ("Open"), Lokað ("Closed"), Bannað ("Forbidden") look like simple labels — but each is a past participle in the neuter, functioning as an impersonal predicate with no subject at all. The sign says, in effect, "[it] is open," "[it] is closed," "[it] is forbidden," with the verb vera dropped and the participle frozen in the neuter because there is nobody and nothing for it to agree with. Below is a set of authentic-style signs, glossed, then unpacked: the bare neuter participle, the bannað að + infinitive prohibition, the agreeing passive (Reykingar bannaðar), and vinsamlegast with the polite imperative. (For the participle-as-adjective in general, see adjectives/past-participle-as-adjective; for the imperative, verbs/imperative.)

The signs

Three grammatical patterns run through this list: the bare neuter participle (Opið, Lokað, Bannað), the bannað að prohibition, and the agreeing passive (Reykingar bannaðar, Aðgangur bannaður).

Opið / Lokað — the bare neuter participle

Start with the two most common signs. Opið ("Open") and Lokað ("Closed") are past participles of opna ("to open") and loka ("to close"), standing in the neuter singular. The full sentence behind Opið would be Það er opið ("It is open") — but signs drop the dummy subject það and the verb er, leaving the participle alone. Why neuter? Because there is no subject for it to agree with: a participle with nothing to point at defaults to the neuter, Icelandic's "no-gender" gender. So a one-word sign is, grammatically, a bare neuter predicate adjective hanging in mid-air.

You can see the neuter ending clearly: -ið (opið, from opinn) and -að (lokað, from lokaður). Compare what these participles look like when they do agree with something:

• opinn gluggi (m.) — "an open window"
• opin hurð (f.) — "an open door"
• opið hús (n.) — "an open house" → and alone on a sign, Opið

Bannað að + infinitive — the prohibition frame

To forbid an action, signs use Bannað að + infinitive — "Forbidden to …". Again bannað is a bare neuter participle (of banna, "to forbid"), and að + infinitive names the prohibited act:

• Bannað að reykja — "No smoking" (lit. "forbidden to smoke")
• Bannað að leggja hér — "No parking here" (leggja = "to park")
• Bannað að synda — "No swimming"

The whole frame means "[It is] forbidden to do X." Its positive counterpart is Leyfilegt að + infinitive ("permitted to …") or Heimilt að … ("allowed to …"), though prohibitions are far more common on signs. This is the productive pattern: slot any infinitive into Bannað að _ and you have a valid prohibition.

Reykingar bannaðar / Aðgangur bannaður — when the participle agrees

Now the subtle twist. When the prohibition is built around a noun rather than an action, the participle stops being neuter-by-default and agrees with that noun in gender, number, and case. Compare:

• Reykingar bannaðar — "Smoking prohibited." Here reykingar ("smoking") is a feminine plural noun, so bannaðar takes the feminine plural ending -aðar. Understood: Reykingar eru bannaðar ("Smoking is prohibited").
• Aðgangur bannaður — "Access forbidden / No entry." Here aðgangur ("access, entry") is a masculine singular noun, so bannaður takes the masculine singular ending -aður. Understood: Aðgangur er bannaður.

So the very same word "forbidden" appears as bannað (neuter, action), bannaðar (feminine plural, with reykingar), and bannaður (masculine singular, with aðgangur) depending on what it attaches to. This is a genuinely tricky point — there is no shortcut; you must read the noun's gender and number off the sign and check that the participle matches. It is precisely the agreement that competitors' phrasebooks gloss over.

Vinsamlegast … / Athugið — the polite request and the heads-up

Not every sign forbids; many request. The marker of a polite request is Vinsamlegast ("please, kindly"), and it is almost always followed by a 2nd-person-plural imperative — the same -ið form recipes use, here addressing the public:

• Vinsamlegast slökkvið á símum — "Please turn off your phones" (slökkvið = imperative of slökkva, "to switch off"; á símum = "on the phones," dative).
• Vinsamlegast lokið hurðinni — "Please close the door."

Separately, Athugið ("Note / Attention," literally the imperative "observe!") flags important information, and Til sölu / Til leigu ("For sale" / "For rent") use the preposition til + genitive to advertise availability.

Vocabulary and forms

Things English speakers get wrong here

Key Takeaways

• One-word signs (Opið, Lokað, Bannað) are bare neuter past participles — short for "[Það er] opið/lokað," with the subject and verb dropped. They are neuter because there is no subject to agree with.
• The prohibition frame is Bannað að + infinitive (Bannað að reykja, Bannað að leggja hér) — the að is obligatory.
• When "forbidden" attaches to a noun, the participle agrees: Reykingar bannaðar (f. pl.), Aðgangur bannaður (m. sg.), Umferð bönnuð (f. sg.).
• Vinsamlegast ("please") introduces a polite request and is followed by the 2pl imperative (Vinsamlegast slökkvið …); Athugið ("Note") flags information.
• Til sölu / Til leigu ("for sale / for rent") use til + genitive.