láta ("to let / make / have done") is one of the highest-frequency verbs in Icelandic, and almost none of that frequency comes from its dictionary gloss "to let." Its real workload is the causative: láta + infinitive means "to have something done / make someone do something" — ég lét gera við bílinn "I had the car repaired." This is a structure English splits across three different verbs (let, make, have), and getting it into your active grammar is the single biggest payoff of this page. Formally, láta is strong Class 7 (the reduplicating class), with the series a – é – é – a you already know from falla: present læt, preterite lét / létu, supine látið. Watch the orthography: the á in láta / látum / látið / látinn always carries its accent, and the present stem fronts to æ (læt, lætur).
Conjugation
Class: strong, Class 7 (reduplicating), series a – é – é – a. Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef látið "I have let / had done." The present singular fronts the stem á → æ (læt, lætur), exactly as halda gives held and gráta gives græt. The long é runs through the whole preterite; the supine and participle restore the á of the infinitive.
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að láta |
| 1sg present | læt |
| 1sg past | lét |
| 3pl past | létu |
| Supine | látið |
| Person | Present (nútíð) | Past (þátíð) |
|---|---|---|
| ég | læt | lét |
| þú | lætur | lést |
| hann / hún / það | lætur | lét |
| við | látum | létum |
| þið | látið | létuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | láta | létu |
| Person | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| ég | láti | léti |
| þú | látir | létir |
| hann / hún / það | láti | léti |
| við | látum | létum |
| þið | látið | létuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | láti | létu |
| Non-finite & imperative | |
|---|---|
| Imperative (þú) | láttu / lát þú |
| Imperative (þið) | látið! |
| Supine | látið |
| Past participle (m/f/n) | látinn / látin / látið |
| Present participle | látandi |
| Middle voice (miðmynd) | látast — "to pretend; to pass away" |
láta + infinitive — the causative ("have / make something done")
This is the meaning to internalise first. láta followed by a bare infinitive (no að) says that the subject causes an action without performing it personally. English splits this idea across have ("I had the car repaired"), make ("she made him apologise") and let ("let me think") — Icelandic uses láta for all three, and the person made to act, if mentioned, goes in the accusative.
Ég lét gera við bílinn í gær.
I had the car repaired yesterday. — láta + bare infinitive 'gera'; the subject arranges it, doesn't do it. The everyday way to say 'have something done'.
Hún lét hann biðjast afsökunar fyrir framan alla.
She made him apologise in front of everyone. — causative with an accusative causee (hann); 'make someone do'.
Láttu mig vita ef þú þarft hjálp.
Let me know if you need help. — fixed everyday phrase 'láta e-n vita' = let someone know; imperative láttu + accusative mig.
Because the infinitive after láta is bare, this is also the natural place English speakers slip: they import the að of "to do." There is no að here — láta gera, never láta að gera.
láta sem — "pretend / act as if"
láta sem (+ a clause) means "to pretend / act as though." The clause typically stands in the subjunctive because the pretence is, by definition, not a fact. A common variant is láta sem ekkert sé "act as if nothing's wrong."
Hann lét sem hann sæi mig ekki.
He pretended he didn't see me. — láta sem + subjunctive (sæi); the 'seeing' is feigned, hence the subjunctive.
Reyndu bara að láta sem ekkert sé.
Just try to act as if nothing's wrong. — set phrase 'láta sem ekkert sé'; subjunctive sé.
láta vel / illa — "behave; be going well"
láta vel and láta illa describe behaviour or how something is going: a child who lætur vel is well-behaved; the sea that lætur illa is rough. láta vel af + dative means "to speak well of / be pleased with."
Krakkarnir létu mjög vel í veislunni.
The kids behaved very well at the party. — láta vel = behave well; past plural létu.
Hún lætur vel af nýja vinnustaðnum sínum.
She speaks well of her new workplace. — láta vel af + dative = be pleased with / praise.
The middle voice: látast
The -st middle látast has two quite separate senses. Its everyday sense is "to pretend" (hann lést sofa "he pretended to sleep"); its solemn sense is "to pass away" — the standard neutral, slightly formal word for someone dying (hún lést í gærkvöldi "she passed away last night"). Context disambiguates completely; you will rarely confuse a pretend-to-sleep with an obituary.
Strákurinn lést vera sofandi þegar mamma hans kom inn.
The boy pretended to be asleep when his mum came in. — látast 'pretend' + infinitive; past lést.
Afi minn lést í hárri elli árið 2019.
My grandfather passed away at a great age in 2019. — látast 'pass away'; the neutral, respectful verb for dying.
- bare infinitive = causative "have / make something done." This one pattern is what competitors usually bury under "to let," and it is the form you will reach for ten times a day: láta klippa sig (get a haircut), láta laga e-ð (get something fixed), láta vita (let know).
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég lét að gera við bílinn.
Incorrect — the infinitive after láta is BARE; there is no 'að'. Say 'lét gera'.
✅ Ég lét gera við bílinn.
I had the car repaired.
The causative láta takes a bare infinitive. English "to" tempts learners into inserting að, but láta gera, láta laga, láta vita never take it.
❌ Ég lataði honum vita.
Incorrect on two counts — láta is strong (no '-aði' past; it's 'lét'), and the causee is accusative: 'lét hann vita'.
✅ Ég lét hann vita.
I let him know.
Regularising láta to a weak -aði is the classic Class-7 error; and the person you let know is in the accusative (hann), not the dative.
❌ Við lötum þetta liggja milli hluta.
Incorrect — the present plural is 'látum' (the á returns); there is no u-umlaut to 'ö' here.
✅ Við látum þetta liggja milli hluta.
We'll leave that aside for now.
The present plural restores the infinitive's á: látum, not lötum. The æ belongs only to the singular læt / lætur.
❌ Hann lét sem hann sér mig ekki.
Incorrect — láta sem takes the subjunctive; use 'sæi', not the indicative 'sér'.
✅ Hann lét sem hann sæi mig ekki.
He pretended he didn't see me.
Pretence is not fact, so the clause after láta sem goes into the subjunctive (sæi, past subjunctive of sjá).
Key Takeaways
- láta is strong Class 7, series a – é – é – a: læt (pres. sg.), lét / létu (past sg./pl.), látið (supine), látinn (participle). Present singular fronts to æ; the plural present and supine restore á.
- The headline use is the causative láta + bare infinitive = "have / make something done" (ég lét gera við bílinn). No að; the causee is accusative.
- láta sem = "pretend / act as if" (with a subjunctive clause); láta vel / illa = "behave / be going well"; láta vel af
- dative = "speak well of."
- Middle látast = "pretend" (everyday) or "pass away" (the neutral verb for dying).
- Auxiliary is hafa: ég hef látið. Learning láta reinforces the whole Class-7 family — falla, halda, gráta, blása.
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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.
- Raising, ECM, and ControlC1 — The three infinitival constructions that organise Icelandic complementation: subject-to-subject RAISING (virðast 'seem' — the lower subject moves up and keeps its case, so a quirky dative stays dative), Exceptional Case Marking / accusative-with-infinitive (ECM: telja 'believe' assigns accusative to the embedded subject — tel hann vera góðan), and CONTROL (a silent PRO coreferent with a matrix argument — lofa að koma). Case preservation under raising is the clinching evidence for quirky subjecthood and the centrepiece of the Icelandic syntax literature.
- halda (to hold / think / keep)A2 — Full conjugation of the strong verb halda (held / hélt / héldu / haldið), its two great senses — 'hold/keep' (+ dat.) and 'think/believe' (halda að…) — plus halda áfram, halda upp á, and the middle voice haldast.
- fallaB1 — Full conjugation of the strong Class-7 verb falla 'to fall' (fell / féll / féllu / fallið), one of the old reduplicating verbs whose stem stays a but whose preterite takes the long é (féll). Covers the u-umlaut in föllum, the ll → [tl] pronunciation, the construction falla á + accusative, the middle fallast (fallast á 'to agree on'), and the family of look-alike Class-7 verbs halda, láta, gráta, blása.
- gráta (to cry / to weep)B2 — Full conjugation of the strong Class-7 verb gráta (græt / grét / grétu / grátið), one of the reduplicating é-preterite verbs alongside halda, láta and falla. Covers the present-singular i-umlaut á→æ (græt, not *grát), the long-é preterite that is the same in singular and plural (grét = grét-u), the construction gráta yfir 'weep over', the accusative cognate object (gráta beiskum tárum is dative; gráta sárt etc.), and the middle grátast.