hjálpa ("to help") is the single best verb to learn the Icelandic dative object from — it is the flagship example that every grammar uses. You help someone in the dative: hjálpa þér "help you," never hjálpa þig. It is otherwise a perfectly regular weak Class-1 verb with an -aði past, but it carries one orthographic trap worth flagging up front: because its stem vowel is a long á, it does not undergo u-umlaut, so "we help" is hjálpum — never hjölpum. This is the mirror image of svara, where the short a does umlaut.
Conjugation
Class: weak, Class 1 (the -aði preterite). Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef hjálpað "I have helped." Stem vowel: long á, which blocks u-umlaut — there is no ö anywhere in this paradigm, even before -u- endings.
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að hjálpa |
| 3sg present | hjálpar |
| 3sg past | hjálpaði |
| Supine | hjálpað |
| Person | Present (nútíð) | Past (þátíð) |
|---|---|---|
| ég | hjálpa | hjálpaði |
| þú | hjálpar | hjálpaðir |
| hann / hún / það | hjálpar | hjálpaði |
| við | hjálpum | hjálpuðum |
| þið | hjálpið | hjálpuðuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | hjálpa | hjálpuðu |
| Person | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| ég | hjálpi | hjálpaði |
| þú | hjálpir | hjálpaðir |
| hann / hún / það | hjálpi | hjálpaði |
| við | hjálpum | hjálpuðum |
| þið | hjálpið | hjálpuðuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | hjálpi | hjálpuðu |
| Non-finite & imperative | |
|---|---|
| Imperative (þú) | hjálpaðu |
| Imperative (þið) | hjálpið! |
| Supine | hjálpað |
| Past participle (m/f/n) | hjálpaður / hjálpuð / hjálpað |
| Middle voice (miðmynd) | hjálpast að — "to help one another" |
The flagship dative: you help someone in the dative
The person (or thing) you help stands in the dative case — hjálpa *mér, hjálpa honum, hjálpa þér*. This is the verb teachers reach for first when introducing dative objects, because it is so frequent and the dative is so consistent. English speakers instinctively want an accusative ("help him" feels like a direct object), so this is a high-value habit to build early.
Geturðu hjálpað mér?
Can you help me?
Hún hjálpaði mér með heimaverkefnið.
She helped me with the homework.
Við hjálpum hvort öðru þegar á þarf að halda.
We help each other when we need to.
Why the dative, and how to make it automatic
It is worth pausing on why Icelandic treats the helped person as a dative rather than an accusative, because the logic transfers to a whole family of verbs. The accusative is the case of the thing an action is done to and directly affects — you see it, hit it, eat it. The dative, by contrast, is the case of the beneficiary or party affected indirectly — the one for whose sake or to whose benefit something happens. Helping is the beneficiary relation par excellence: you don't act on the person the way you act on a ball you throw; you act for their benefit. That is precisely the meaning the dative carries, and it is why a cluster of "beneficial/relational" verbs all govern it — hjálpa (help), þakka (thank), bjóða (invite/offer), fylgja (accompany), treysta (trust).
The practical takeaway: if you can paraphrase the verb as doing something for or to the benefit of someone, expect the dative. Drill hjálpa mér / þér / honum / henni / okkur / ykkur / þeim until it is reflex — it is the single most common dative collocation a beginner produces, and getting it automatic pays off across the whole dative system.
hjálpa til — "lend a hand, pitch in"
The phrasal hjálpa til means "to help out / lend a hand" with no specified object — to make yourself useful generally. It is the natural thing to say when offering to assist around the house, at an event, or on a job.
Viltu hjálpa til í eldhúsinu?
Do you want to help out in the kitchen?
Allir hjálpuðu til við að bera kassana inn.
Everyone helped out carrying the boxes in.
Across tenses and moods
Hjálpaðu mér aðeins með þetta, takk.
Help me with this for a second, thanks.
Þau hjálpuðu okkur að flytja um helgina.
They helped us move over the weekend.
Ég vona að einhver hjálpi honum.
I hope someone helps him.
Common Mistakes
❌ Geturðu hjálpað mig?
Incorrect — hjálpa takes the dative (mér), not the accusative (mig)
✅ Geturðu hjálpað mér?
Can you help me?
❌ Við hjölpum þér á morgun.
Incorrect — the long á blocks u-umlaut, so 'we help' is hjálpum, never *hjölpum
✅ Við hjálpum þér á morgun.
We'll help you tomorrow.
❌ Hún hjálpaði hann með verkefnið.
Incorrect — the person helped is dative (honum), not accusative (hann)
✅ Hún hjálpaði honum með verkefnið.
She helped him with the project.
❌ Allir hjálptu til.
Incorrect — hjálpa is a Class-1 -aði verb, so the past plural is hjálpuðu, not a -ti form
✅ Allir hjálpuðu til.
Everyone helped out.
Key Takeaways
- hjálpa / hjálpar / hjálpaði / hjálpað — a regular weak Class-1 verb (the -aði past).
- No u-umlaut: the long á blocks it, so "we help" is hjálpum, never hjölpum — the accent is the off-switch.
- hjálpa governs the DATIVE: hjálpa mér / honum / þér — the flagship dative verb. Never use the accusative.
- hjálpa (einhverjum) með (+ dat) = "help (someone) with"; hjálpa til = "help out / lend a hand."
- Auxiliary is hafa: ég hef hjálpað.
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- svara (to answer)A2 — Full conjugation of the weak Class-1 verb svara (svara / svaraði / svöruðu / svarað) with its u-umlaut (svörum, svöruðum), and its case surprise: svara governs the DATIVE — svara spurningunni, svara mér — not the accusative.