bera ("to carry; to bear") is the textbook model of strong Class 4, and it is worth learning cold because the whole class copies its vowel pattern. The class runs on the four-step series e – a – á – o: present stem ber- (with e), preterite singular bar (with a), preterite plural báru (with long á), and supine borið (with o). That singular-vs-plural vowel split in the past — short a in bar but long á in báru — is the feature that catches every learner, and it is exactly the same split you will meet in nema ("take, learn": nam / námu) and stela ("steal": stal / stálu). Learn it once on bera and it transfers straight across. Beyond the paradigm, bera is high-frequency in idioms — bera saman ("compare"), bera ábyrgð á ("be responsible for") — and its middle voice berast ("spread, be carried") is everyday news vocabulary.
Conjugation
Class: strong, Class 4 (the e – a – á – o series). Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef borið "I have carried." Object case: accusative (bera eitthvað "carry something").
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að bera |
| 1sg present | ber |
| 1sg past | bar |
| 3pl past | báru |
| Supine | borið |
| Person | Present (nútíð) | Past (þátíð) |
|---|---|---|
| ég | ber | bar |
| þú | berð | barst |
| hann / hún / það | ber | bar |
| við | berum | bárum |
| þið | berið | báruð |
| þeir / þær / þau | bera | báru |
| Person | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| ég | beri | bæri |
| þú | berir | bærir |
| hann / hún / það | beri | bæri |
| við | berum | bærum |
| þið | berið | bæruð |
| þeir / þær / þau | beri | bæru |
| Non-finite & imperative | |
|---|---|
| Imperative (þú) | berðu! (= ber + þú) |
| Imperative (þið) | berið! |
| Supine | borið |
| Past participle (m/f/n) | borinn / borin / borið |
| Present participle | berandi |
| Middle voice (miðmynd) | berast — "to spread / be carried" |
The Class-4 series: e – a – á – o, and the bar / báru split
Class 4 is small but high-yield, and bera is its purest member. Read the four principal parts as a melody: ber – bar – báru – borið. The present has e; the past singular has short a (bar); the past plural lengthens it to á (báru); the supine and participle drop to o (borið, borinn). The trap, always, is the past: English has one past form, but Icelandic strong verbs split it, and Class 4 makes the split audible by changing vowel length.
| Verb | Present | Past sg. | Past pl. | Supine |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| bera (carry) | ber | bar | báru | borið |
| nema (take, learn) | nem | nam | námu | numið |
| stela (steal) | stel | stal | stálu | stolið |
Notice how nema and stela echo bera step for step — same short-a singular, same long-á plural. (The full class, with its sub-patterns: verbs/strong-class-4-7; the quick-reference grid: verb-ref/strong-class-key. Sister cards: verb-ref/nema, verb-ref/stela.)
Ég ber þetta inn, geturðu opnað hurðina?
I'll carry this in — can you open the door? Present ber (e-grade), accusative object 'þetta'.
Hann bar töskurnar alla leiðina upp.
He carried the bags all the way up. Past singular bar (short a) — one carrier.
Við bárum borðið út í garð í gær.
We carried the table out into the garden yesterday. Past plural bárum (long á) — note the vowel length change from singular bar.
Core meanings: literal and figurative 'bear'
Like English bear, bera spans the literal and the figurative. Literally it is "carry, bear (a load)": bera töskur ("carry bags"). Figuratively it covers bearing/wearing and carrying abstract things: bera nafn ("bear a name"), bera virðingu fyrir ("have respect for"), bera saman ("compare"), bera ábyrgð á ("bear responsibility for"). Two of these are worth singling out because they are everyday and English speakers get the syntax wrong.
bera saman ("compare") — literally "carry together." The two things compared go in the accusative, joined by og or við: bera saman tvö verð / bera A saman við B.
bera ábyrgð á ("be responsible for") — literally "bear responsibility on." It is fixed: bera ábyrgð + the preposition á + the dative (bera ábyrgð á þessu, á börnunum). You don't "be responsible," you bear responsibility on something.
Berum saman verðin áður en við kaupum.
Let's compare the prices before we buy. bera saman ('compare'); imperative berum (við-form) + accusative object verðin.
Hver ber ábyrgð á þessu klúðri?
Who's responsible for this mess? bera ábyrgð á + dative (á þessu klúðri); the responsibility idiom takes the dative after á.
Bærinn ber nafn fyrsta landnámsmannsins.
The town bears the name of the first settler. Figurative bera nafn ('bear a name'); genitive landnámsmannsins for 'of the settler'.
A note on á here, because it is a genuine wrinkle: the preposition á takes the accusative for motion and the dative for location elsewhere, but in the fixed idiom bera ábyrgð á it locks to the dative (á þessu, á börnunum) regardless. Memorise the idiom whole, with the dative built in. (The Class-4 paradigm in full: verbs/strong-class-4-7.)
The middle voice: berast
The -st middle berast is extremely common, especially in the news, where it means "to spread / be carried / arrive (of news, rumours, letters)." It conjugates as bera + -st, so the same vowel series carries over: present berst, past singular barst, past plural bárust, supine borist. With a dative recipient it means "reach / arrive to someone": bréfið barst mér í gær ("the letter reached me yesterday").
Fréttin barst um allan bæ á örfáum mínútum.
The news spread across the whole town in a few minutes. Middle past berast → barst ('spread, was carried').
Okkur bárust margar kvartanir um helgina.
Many complaints reached us over the weekend. Middle plural bárust + dative recipient 'okkur' ('reached us').
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég beraði töskurnar upp.
Regularising a strong verb — bera has no weak '-aði' past. The past singular is the strong bar.
✅ Ég bar töskurnar upp.
I carried the bags up. (strong past singular bar)
bera is strong; there is no *beraði. Singular past is bar, plural bárum / báru.
❌ Við barum borðið út.
Wrong plural vowel — the past plural lengthens to á: bárum, not the short-a 'barum'.
✅ Við bárum borðið út.
We carried the table out. (past plural bárum, long á)
The singular has short a (bar); the plural lengthens it to á (bárum, báruð, báru). Mixing them up is the classic Class-4 slip.
❌ Ég hef barið þetta of lengi.
Wrong supine — that's the supine of berja ('to beat')! The supine of bera is borið (o-grade).
✅ Ég hef borið þetta of lengi.
I've carried this too long. (supine borið; barið belongs to a different verb, berja 'beat')
Beware the lookalike: borið is the supine of bera ("carry"), but barið is the supine of berja ("beat, hit"). One letter, two verbs.
❌ Hver er ábyrgur fyrir þessu?
Calque from English 'responsible for' — Icelandic idiom is 'bera ábyrgð á', not 'vera ábyrgur fyrir'.
✅ Hver ber ábyrgð á þessu?
Who's responsible for this? (idiom: bera ábyrgð á — 'bear responsibility on')
Don't calque "be responsible for." The idiom is bera ábyrgð á ("bear responsibility on"), with bera, not a copula + adjective.
❌ Ég samanber verðin.
Wrong structure — 'compare' is the two-word phrasal bera saman, with saman after the verb, not a fused '*samanbera'.
✅ Ég ber saman verðin.
I'm comparing the prices. (bera saman — saman follows the conjugated bera)
bera saman is a particle verb: conjugate bera and place saman after it (ég ber saman …, hann bar saman …), not as a fused infinitive.
Key Takeaways
- bera is the model strong Class 4: principal parts ber – bar – báru – borið, the series e – a – á – o.
- Drill the past split: singular short a (ég bar), plural long á (við bárum, þeir báru) — the same split as nema (nam/námu) and stela (stal/stálu).
- Supine borið, participle borinn / borin / borið; auxiliary hafa (ég hef borið). Don't confuse borið (carry) with barið (the supine of berja, "beat").
- Idioms English speakers calque wrongly: bera saman ("compare," particle after the verb) and bera ábyrgð á
- dative ("be responsible for").
- The middle berast ("spread / be carried / reach") is everyday news vocabulary: fréttin barst, okkur bárust kvartanir — and its 3sg past barst is spelled like the active 2sg past þú barst.
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Strong Verb Classes 4-7B1 — The last four ablaut classes of Icelandic strong verbs: Class 4 (e–a–á–o: bera → bar, báru, borið; nema, stela), Class 5 (e–a–á–e: gefa → gaf, gáfu, gefið; lesa, sjá → sá, sáu, séð), Class 6 (a–ó–ó–a: fara → fór, fóru, farið; taka → tók, standa → stóð), and Class 7 (the reduplicating remnant with é-preterites: halda → hélt, héldu, haldið; láta → lét, falla → féll, ganga → gekk, fá → fékk) — where the most irregular-looking everyday verbs actually live.
- Strong Verb Class Reference KeyB1 — A navigation hub for the seven Icelandic strong-verb ablaut classes — each with its vowel series (infinitive – preterite singular – preterite plural – supine) and 2–3 exemplar verbs — so that knowing a verb's class lets you predict its whole paradigm. Turns ~150 strong verbs into seven patterns plus exceptions.
- nema (to take / to study)B2 — Full conjugation of the strong Class-4 verb nema (nem / nam / námu / numið), built on the same e–a–á series as bera and stela. Covers the formal academic sense 'study' (nema lögfræði), the fixed idiom nema staðar 'come to a stop', nema land 'settle / claim land', the middle nemast, and — crucially — how to keep the verb nema apart from its homograph nema, the conjunction 'unless / except'.
- stela (to steal)B2 — Full conjugation of the strong Class-4 verb stela (stel / stal / stálu / stolið), on the same e–a–á series as bera and nema, with the crucial twist that stela governs the DATIVE of the thing stolen (stela peningum, not *peninga) and frames the victim with frá + dative. Covers the middle stelast and the idiom stelast til að 'do something on the sly'.
- The Middle Voice (-st): OverviewB1 — An orientation to the Icelandic middle voice — the verb form built by suffixing -st — covering its four meaning-types (reflexive, reciprocal, anticausative/passive-like, and lexicalised) and the crucial fact that the meaning of an -st verb is not predictable from its base, so many are their own dictionary entries.
- The Preterite (þátíð): UsesA2 — What the simple past tense does — the default narrative past that covers English simple past AND, often, the present perfect for completed events, with Icelandic's separate hafa + supine perfect used more selectively, and the German-style ban on the perfect with definite past-time adverbs (no *ég hef farið í gær).