elda ("to cook") is a kitchen verb you will use every day in Iceland. It is a regular weak Class-1 verb, conjugating exactly like tala and elska, and because its stem vowel is e, it never triggers u-umlaut. The one genuine trap here has nothing to do with the conjugation: add -st and you get eldast, which does not mean "to be cooked" — it means to grow old. That false friend has surprised many a learner, so we flag it loudly below.
Conjugation
Class: weak, Class 1 (the -aði preterite). Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef eldað "I have cooked."
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að elda |
| 3sg present | eldar |
| 3sg past | eldaði |
| Supine | eldað |
| Person | Present (nútíð) | Past (þátíð) |
|---|---|---|
| ég | elda | eldaði |
| þú | eldar | eldaðir |
| hann / hún / það | eldar | eldaði |
| við | eldum | elduðum |
| þið | eldið | elduðuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | elda | elduðu |
| Person | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| ég | eldi | eldaði |
| þú | eldir | eldaðir |
| hann / hún / það | eldi | eldaði |
| við | eldum | elduðum |
| þið | eldið | elduðuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | eldi | elduðu |
| Non-finite & imperative | |
|---|---|
| Imperative (þú) | eldaðu |
| Imperative (þið) | eldið! |
| Supine | eldað |
| Past participle (m/f/n) | eldaður / elduð / eldað |
| Middle voice (miðmynd) | eldast — "to grow old" (a false friend, not "be cooked"!) |
A model regular verb
elda runs on the standard Class-1 settings: drop the -a and add -aði for the past (eldaði), -að for the supine (eldað). It is so regular that once you can conjugate tala, you already know elda — only the stem letters change. Note the imperative eldaðu ("cook!"), formed by attaching -ðu to the stem.
Ég elda kvöldmat á hverju kvöldi.
I cook dinner every evening.
Hver eldaði þennan dásamlega fisk?
Who cooked this wonderful fish?
Við elduðum saman alla helgina.
We cooked together all weekend.
elda mat — "to cook food"
The default object is mat ("food," accusative of matur): elda mat is the all-purpose phrase for "to cook / to make a meal." You can also elda a specific dish: elda pasta, elda súpu, elda lambakjöt.
Eldaðu eitthvað gott handa okkur í kvöld!
Cook something nice for us tonight!
Hann eldar bestu súpu sem ég hef smakkað.
He cooks the best soup I've ever tasted.
elda vs sjóða vs steikja vs baka
Icelandic splits "cook" into specific methods, and elda is the general one. Use sjóða for boil (in water — pasta, potatoes, eggs), steikja for fry / pan-fry / roast (in fat or in the oven), and baka for bake (bread, cakes). elda covers the whole activity of preparing a hot meal; the others name the technique.
Ég ætla að sjóða kartöflurnar og steikja fiskinn.
I'm going to boil the potatoes and fry the fish.
Common Mistakes
❌ Við öldum kvöldmat saman.
Incorrect — elda is an e-stem, so there is no u-umlaut; 'we cook' is eldum
✅ Við eldum kvöldmat saman.
We cook dinner together.
❌ Maturinn eldist í ofninum.
Incorrect — eldast means 'grow old', so this says 'the food is ageing in the oven'
✅ Maturinn er næstum tilbúinn.
The food is almost ready.
❌ Ég eldaður mat í gær.
Incorrect — the finite past is eldaði; eldaður is the participle, not a 1sg verb
✅ Ég eldaði mat í gær.
I cooked food yesterday.
❌ Ég ætla að elda kartöflurnar í vatni.
Understandable, but boiling in water is sjóða, not elda
✅ Ég ætla að sjóða kartöflurnar.
I'm going to boil the potatoes.
Key Takeaways
- elda / eldar / eldaði / eldað — model weak Class 1, fully regular -aði past.
- No u-umlaut: the e-stem means við eldum, past plural elduðum — never an ö.
- elda mat = "cook food / make a meal"; you can also elda a specific dish.
- The middle voice eldast is a false friend: it means "to grow old," not "be cooked."
- For method, switch verbs: sjóða (boil), steikja (fry/roast), baka (bake).
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- baka (to bake)A2 — Full conjugation of the weak Class-1 verb baka (baka / bakaði / bökuðu / bakað), an a-stem that takes u-umlaut in bökum and bökuðum, the recipe imperative Bakið…, the agent noun bakari, and the passive kakan var bökuð.
- The Weak Preterite: -aði, -di, -ði, -tiA2 — How to choose and form the weak past tense — Class-1 -a verbs take -aði (tala → talaði, plural töluðum), Class-2 verbs take the short dental -di/-ði/-ti picked by the preceding sound (reyndi, dæmdi, keypti) — with the full tala paradigm and the 'when in doubt, -aði' default for unknown verbs.