hringja (to call / ring) | Icelandic Grammar

hringja ("to call, to ring") is the verb you reach for every time you pick up a phone, and it hides two small surprises for the learner. First, it is a j-verb: the j of the stem surfaces in some forms (hringjum, hringja) and vanishes in others (hringi, hringdi). Second, "call someone" is not a direct object — it is hringja í + accusative, literally "ring into someone." Get those two points right and the rest is the predictable weak machinery.

Conjugation

Class: weak, Class 2 (j-stem); the past is the dental -di type. Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef hringt "I have called."

Principal parts
Infinitive	að hringja
3sg present	hringir
3sg past	hringdi
Supine	hringt

Person	Present (nútíð)	Past (þátíð)
ég	hringi	hringdi
þú	hringir	hringdir
hann / hún / það	hringir	hringdi
við	hringjum	hringdum
þið	hringið	hringduð
þeir / þær / þau	hringja	hringdu

Person	Present subjunctive	Past subjunctive
ég	hringi	hringdi
þú	hringir	hringdir
hann / hún / það	hringi	hringdi
við	hringjum	hringdum
þið	hringið	hringduð
þeir / þær / þau	hringi	hringdu

Non-finite & imperative
Imperative (þú)	hringdu
Imperative (þið)	hringið!
Supine	hringt
Past participle (m/f/n)	hringdur / hringd / hringt

💡

The j only appears before a back vowel a or u: hringjum, hringja. Before i it drops out: hringi, hringir, hringið. This is a general rule of Icelandic j-verbs (compare spyrja → spyr / spurði), so the pattern you learn here transfers to a whole class of verbs.

Pronunciation: the ng trap

The ng in hringja is not "n + g" the way an English speaker reads it. It is the velar nasal [ŋ], and — crucially — the preceding vowel i is pronounced like a long Icelandic í (roughly "ee"). So hringja sounds approximately like "hreeng-ya", and hringdi like "hreeng-di". This vowel-lengthening before ng/nk is automatic in Icelandic; you will hear the same shift in langur, banki.

hringja í — "call someone" (+ accusative)

To phone a person, use hringja í + accusative. English uses a bare object ("call her"), but Icelandic routes it through the preposition í, which here takes the accusative.

Ég hringi í þig þegar ég er búinn með matinn.

I'll call you when I've finished eating.

Hringdu í mömmu þína, hún er að bíða.

Call your mum, she's waiting.

Hann hringdi í mig þrisvar í gær.

He called me three times yesterday.

hringja á — "call for / summon"

To call for a service or summon something — a taxi, an ambulance, the police — use hringja á + accusative.

Geturðu hringt á leigubíl fyrir okkur?

Can you call a taxi for us?

Þau urðu að hringja á sjúkrabíl.

They had to call an ambulance.

The bell sense: "to ring"

hringja is also the verb for a bell, a phone, or an alarm ringing. Here it is intransitive — no object, no preposition.

Síminn hringdi í miðjum fundi.

The phone rang in the middle of the meeting.

Klukkan hringir klukkan sjö á morgnana.

The alarm rings at seven in the mornings.

Phone vocabulary

The noun for a phone call is símtal (n.), and a phone is sími (m.). You take a call (svara símtali, "answer a call," with svara + dative) and you make one with hringja. To say someone "rings back / calls back," Icelandic uses hringja aftur ("ring again") or hringja til baka.

Ég missti af símtali frá lækninum.

I missed a call from the doctor.

Hann svaraði ekki, svo ég hringi aftur seinna.

He didn't answer, so I'll call back later.

💡

Keep hringja (the verb, "to call") apart from hringur (the noun, "a ring/circle") and hringur the finger-ring. They share a root — a phone "ringing" and a circular "ring" both come from the idea of a resonant bell — but in a sentence the verb always carries an ending (hringi, hringdi, hringt), while the noun declines like an ordinary masculine (hringur, hring, hringi, hrings).

Continuous "I'm calling": vera að hringja

Icelandic has no separate progressive tense; to stress that calling is happening right now it uses vera að + infinitive — ég er að hringja ("I'm (in the middle of) calling"). This is extremely common on the phone itself, where you announce why you are ringing.

Halló, ég er að hringja út af auglýsingunni.

Hello, I'm calling about the advertisement.

Hún var að hringja en ég náði ekki í símann.

She was just calling but I didn't get to the phone.

Common Mistakes

❌ Ég hringi þig á morgun.

Incorrect — 'call someone' needs the preposition í + accusative, not a bare object

✅ Ég hringi í þig á morgun.

I'll call you tomorrow.

❌ Hún hringjaði í mig.

Incorrect — hringja is a -di verb, not an -aði verb; regularising it is the classic error

✅ Hún hringdi í mig.

She called me.

❌ Við hringum á leigubíl.

Incorrect — the -um ending keeps the j: hringjum

✅ Við hringjum á leigubíl.

We'll call a taxi.

❌ Hringaðu í mig seinna!

Incorrect — the imperative is hringdu (from the -di past), not a regularised hringaðu

✅ Hringdu í mig seinna!

Call me later!

Key Takeaways

hringja / hringir / hringdi / hringt — a weak j-verb with a dental -di past.
The j surfaces before a/u (hringjum, hringja) and drops before i (hringi, hringir).
"Call someone" = hringja í
- accusative; "call for / summon" = hringja á
  - accusative.
Used intransitively for a bell, phone or alarm ringing: síminn hringdi.
Imperative hringdu; auxiliary hafa (ég hef hringt).
The ng is the velar nasal [ŋ] with a lengthened i — "hreeng-," not "hrin-g."

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