heilsa ("to greet, say hello") is a perfectly regular weak Class-1 verb in its forms — heilsa, heilsaði, heilsað, no surprises — but it carries the single most important fact a learner can know about it, and it is not in any conjugation table: heilsa takes a dative object. You greet to someone, structurally: heilsa einhverjum ("greet someone," dative). English gives you no warning, because "greet the teacher" looks like a plain direct object. This page drills the dative, the warm idiom heilsa upp á ("drop in on," which flips to the accusative), and the everyday greeting use you will reach for daily.
Conjugation
Class: weak, Class 1 (the -aði preterite). Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef heilsað "I have greeted." The stem vowel is ei (a diphthong), so there is no u-umlaut anywhere — nothing rounds to ö.
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að heilsa |
| 3sg present | heilsar |
| 3sg past | heilsaði |
| 3pl past | heilsuðu |
| Supine | heilsað |
| Person | Present (nútíð) | Past (þátíð) |
|---|---|---|
| ég | heilsa | heilsaði |
| þú | heilsar | heilsaðir |
| hann / hún / það | heilsar | heilsaði |
| við | heilsum | heilsuðum |
| þið | heilsið | heilsuðuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | heilsa | heilsuðu |
| Person | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| ég | heilsi | heilsaði |
| þú | heilsir | heilsaðir |
| hann / hún / það | heilsi | heilsaði |
| við | heilsum | heilsuðum |
| þið | heilsið | heilsuðuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | heilsi | heilsuðu |
| Non-finite & imperative | |
|---|---|
| Imperative (þú) | heilsaðu |
| Imperative (þið) | heilsið! |
| Supine | heilsað |
| Past participle (m/f/n) | heilsaður / heilsuð / heilsað |
| Middle voice (miðmynd) | heilsast — "to greet each other, exchange greetings" |
The dative object: heilsa einhverjum
This is where English speakers fail by reflex. In English, "greet" takes an ordinary direct object: greet the guests, greet the teacher, greet her. In Icelandic, heilsa governs the dative — heilsa einhverjum ("greet someone," dative). So the teacher, which in the nominative is kennarinn and in the accusative kennarann, appears here as kennaranum (dative). And "her" is not the accusative hana but the dative henni. There is no logic to recover from English; you simply mark heilsa in memory as a "dative verb" and decline the person accordingly. Think of greeting as something you direct toward someone — that mental image makes the dative feel less arbitrary.
Ég heilsaði kennaranum þegar ég kom inn.
I greeted the teacher when I came in. (kennaranum — dative)
Gleymdu ekki að heilsa ömmu þinni.
Don't forget to say hello to your grandmother. (ömmu — dative)
Hann gekk fram hjá mér án þess að heilsa mér.
He walked right past me without saying hello (to me). (mér — dative)
The everyday greeting use
In daily life heilsa is the verb behind "say hi." You heilsar people when you arrive, and a parent constantly tells a shy child að heilsa — to say hello politely. The reflexive-reciprocal middle voice heilsast means two people greet each other (þau heilsuðust "they exchanged greetings"). And note the warm extension heilsa upp á, treated below, for actively going to see someone.
Segðu hæ — manstu ekki að heilsa frænku þinni?
Say hi — don't you remember to greet your aunt? (frænku — dative)
Þau heilsuðust kurteislega en sögðu fátt.
They greeted each other politely but said little. (heilsast, middle voice)
heilsa upp á — "drop in on" (and it flips to the accusative)
Here is a twist worth flagging. Plain heilsa takes the dative, but the phrasal heilsa upp á ("drop in on, pay a visit to, go and see") takes the accusative, because the case is now assigned by the preposition á, not by the verb. Heilsa upp á einhvern ("call on someone") uses the accusative einhvern. The meaning shifts too: it is no longer just saying hello but making a point of going to see someone.
Við ætlum að heilsa upp á afa á leiðinni heim.
We're going to drop in on Grandpa on the way home. (afa — accusative, after upp á)
Kíktu við og heilsaðu upp á okkur þegar þú ert í bænum.
Pop by and call on us when you're in town.
Why dative at all?
heilsa belongs to a recognisable group of Icelandic verbs of directed social or communicative action that take the dative — svara ("answer"), þakka ("thank"), bjóða ("invite, offer"), fagna ("welcome, celebrate"), heilsa ("greet"). The shared thread is that the object is the recipient of the action you direct outward, much like the dative of a thing you give. If you file heilsa alongside svara and þakka — all "do something to/for a person" verbs — the dative stops feeling random and starts predicting itself.
Hún heilsaði öllum gestunum með handabandi.
She greeted all the guests with a handshake. (gestunum — dative plural)
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég heilsaði kennarann.
Incorrect — heilsa takes the dative, so 'the teacher' is kennaranum, not the accusative kennarann.
✅ Ég heilsaði kennaranum.
I greeted the teacher.
❌ Hann heilsaði mig ekki.
Incorrect — the object must be dative: mér, not the accusative mig.
✅ Hann heilsaði mér ekki.
He didn't say hello to me.
❌ Við heilsuðum upp á afa (intending plain 'we greeted Grandpa').
Misleading — heilsa upp á means 'drop in on / call on'. For simply greeting him on the spot, drop the phrasal upp á and use the dative: heilsuðum afa.
✅ Við heilsuðum afa þegar hann kom.
We greeted Grandpa when he arrived. (bare heilsa + dative afa)
❌ Krakkar, munið að heilsa gestunum (said as *gestina).
Incorrect — bare heilsa is dative, so it is gestunum, never the accusative gestina.
✅ Krakkar, munið að heilsa gestunum.
Kids, remember to greet the guests.
Key Takeaways
- heilsa / heilsar / heilsaði / heilsað — a fully regular weak Class-1 verb; ei-stem, so no u-umlaut (heilsum, heilsuðu).
- The headline rule: heilsa takes a DATIVE object — heilsa kennaranum, ömmu, mér.
- heilsa upp á
- accusative = "drop in on, call on someone" — the preposition flips the case.
- Middle voice heilsast = "greet each other."
- File it with svara, þakka, bjóða — directed social verbs that all take the dative.
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