leika ("to play / act") is the play verb of the theatre, the playground and the trickster — but not of the football pitch or the piano, which belong to spila. It is strong Class 7, sharing the long-é preterite of falla and láta: present leik, preterite lék / léku, supine leikið. The verb covers three distinct senses that English happens to bundle under "play / act": acting a role (leika Hamlet), children playing (the reflexive leika sér), and fooling someone (leika á + accusative). Master the division of labour with spila and you will sound markedly more native. Orthography: the preterite is the long é (lék, léku, léki), never a plain e; the supine restores the ei diphthong (leikið).
Conjugation
Class: strong, Class 7 (reduplicating), series ei – é – é – ei. Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef leikið "I have played / acted." The stem diphthong ei holds in the present and supine; the preterite is the long é throughout (no short-vowel plural).
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að leika |
| 1sg present | leik |
| 1sg past | lék |
| 3pl past | léku |
| Supine | leikið |
| Person | Present (nútíð) | Past (þátíð) |
|---|---|---|
| ég | leik | lék |
| þú | leikur | lékst |
| hann / hún / það | leikur | lék |
| við | leikum | lékum |
| þið | leikið | lékuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | leika | léku |
| Person | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| ég | leiki | léki |
| þú | leikir | lékir |
| hann / hún / það | leiki | léki |
| við | leikum | lékum |
| þið | leikið | lékuð |
| þeir / þær / þau | leiki | léku |
| Non-finite & imperative | |
|---|---|
| Imperative (þú) | leiktu / leik þú |
| Imperative (þið) | leikið! |
| Supine | leikið |
| Past participle (m/f/n) | leikinn / leikin / leikið |
| Present participle | leikandi |
| Middle voice (miðmynd) | leikast — esp. e-m leikst e-ð (vel) "to manage / pull something off" |
leika — to act (a role)
In the theatre, film and figurative senses, leika takes a direct accusative: you leikur a character, a part, a hero. leika í + dative names the production you act in (leika í kvikmynd "act in a film"). The figurative reach is wide: leika tveimur skjöldum "play a double game," leika lausum hala "run wild / be unchecked," and e-ð leikur í höndunum á e-m "something comes easily to someone's hands." English "play" overlaps here only partially — English uses act for the stage and play for the playground, while Icelandic keeps both under leika and instead splits off games and instruments to spila. So the dividing line a learner must redraw is not "act vs. play" but "creative/performative play (leika) vs. rule-governed play (spila)."
Hún leikur aðalhlutverkið í nýju uppfærslunni á Þjóðleikhúsinu.
She's playing the lead in the new production at the National Theatre. — leika + accusative (aðalhlutverkið); standard theatrical use.
Hann lék lögreglumann í þáttunum sem allir voru að tala um.
He played a policeman in the series everyone was talking about. — past lék + accusative; 'play a character'.
leika sér — children playing
When the activity is free play — kids in a sandpit, a cat with a ball of yarn — Icelandic uses the reflexive leika sér (literally "play for oneself"), with the reflexive in the dative (sér). This is the form you want for "the children are playing," and it is where spila would be flatly wrong.
Börnin eru úti að leika sér í snjónum.
The kids are outside playing in the snow. — leika sér (dative reflexive) = free play; never spila here.
Má ég fara út að leika? — Já, en vertu komin heim fyrir kvöldmat.
Can I go out to play? — Yes, but be home before dinner. — children's 'fara út að leika (sér)'; the sér is often dropped colloquially with kids.
leika á + accusative — to fool / trick
leika á + accusative means "to fool, trick, get the better of" someone — to play on them. It is everyday, slightly playful, and very common.
Þeir léku illilega á okkur í samningaviðræðunum.
They really pulled a fast one on us in the negotiations. — leika á + accusative (okkur) = trick/outsmart; past léku.
Ég lét ekki leika á mig tvisvar.
I didn't let myself be fooled twice. — leika á + accusative mig, here inside a láta-causative passive.
leika vs. spila — the great divide
This is the distinction learners most need. Both translate "play," but they cover non-overlapping territory:
| Use | Verb | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Act a role (theatre/film) | leika | leika Hamlet |
| Children's free play | leika sér | börnin leika sér |
| Fool / trick someone | leika á | leika á einhvern |
| Play an instrument | spila (or leika á
| spila á gítar |
| Play a game / cards / sport | spila | spila fótbolta, spila á spil |
So a footballer spilar, a guitarist spilar (colloquial) — but an actor leikur, and a child leikur sér. One subtlety worth knowing: with instruments, the elevated/formal idiom is in fact leika á + accusative (hún leikur á fiðlu "she plays the violin," concert-programme register), while everyday speech says spila á fiðlu. For games and sport, though, spila has no leika rival — never leika fótbolta.
Eigum við að spila á spil eða horfa á eitthvað?
Shall we play cards or watch something? — spila for the card game; leika would be wrong here.
Einleikarinn lék á fiðlu af mikilli snilld.
(formal) The soloist played the violin with great brilliance. — leika á + accusative for an instrument in elevated, concert register.
The middle voice: leikast
The -st form leikast appears chiefly in the impersonal dative idiom e-m leikst e-ð (vel) "someone manages / pulls something off (well)" — closely tied to the noun leikni "skill."
Honum leikst flest vel sem hann tekur sér fyrir hendur.
He pulls off most things he takes on. — impersonal leikast with a dative experiencer (honum) = manage/succeed at.
Common Mistakes
❌ Börnin eru að spila úti í garðinum.
Incorrect (for free play) — children's playing is 'leika sér': 'börnin eru að leika sér úti'.
✅ Börnin eru að leika sér úti í garðinum.
The kids are playing outside in the garden.
For children's free play, use the reflexive leika sér. spila implies a structured game (cards, a board game), not running-around play.
❌ Hann leikur fótbolta með liðinu sínu.
Incorrect — a sport/game is 'spila': 'hann spilar fótbolta'.
✅ Hann spilar fótbolta með liðinu sínu.
He plays football with his team.
Sports and games take spila. leika is for acting, children's play and fooling — never for football.
❌ Hún leikaði aðalhlutverkið.
Incorrect — leika is strong Class 7; the past is 'lék', not the weak '-aði'.
✅ Hún lék aðalhlutverkið.
She played the lead.
leika is strong: the preterite is the long-é lék / léku, never a regularised leikaði.
❌ Þeir leku á okkur.
Incorrect — the past plural keeps the long é: 'léku', not short 'leku'.
✅ Þeir léku á okkur.
They tricked us.
Like all Class-7 verbs, leika has no short-vowel past plural; léku keeps the same é as the singular lék.
Key Takeaways
- leik / leikur / lék / léku / leikið — strong Class 7, series ei – é – é – ei; long é through the whole preterite, ei restored in the supine.
- leika
- accusative = act a role; leika sér (dative reflexive) = children's free play; leika á
- accusative = fool / trick.
- accusative = act a role; leika sér (dative reflexive) = children's free play; leika á
- spila owns instruments (colloquial) and all games/sport; leika á
- accusative is the formal idiom for playing an instrument. Never leika fótbolta.
- Middle leikast = manage / pull off (impersonal, dative experiencer).
- Auxiliary is hafa: ég hef leikið. The paradigm reinforces the Class-7 family falla, láta, halda.
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- spila (to play — games & instruments)A2 — Full conjugation of the weak Class-1 verb spila (spila / spilaði / spiluðu / spilað), an i-stem that does NOT u-umlaut (spilum, not 'spölum'), with spila á + accusative 'play an instrument', spila við 'play against', and the contrast with leika 'act / play a role'.
- Reflexive Verbs and Inherent ReflexivesB2 — Verbs used with the reflexive pronoun sig/sér/sín. True reflexives (hann þvær sér 'he washes himself') where the reflexive is a real object, versus inherently reflexive verbs (flýta sér, skemmta sér, ná sér) where the reflexive is obligatory and carries no separate meaning. Some require dative sér (flýta sér), some accusative sig (hreyfa sig). Plus the benefactive dative reflexive — fá sér, kaupa sér — that marks an action as 'for one's own benefit'. Crucially, sig/sér/sín is 3rd person ONLY; for 'we hurry' you say flýtum okkur.
- 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.
- 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.
- látaB1 — Full conjugation of the strong Class-7 verb láta (læt / lét / létu / látið), 'to let / make / have done', with its signature causative láta + infinitive ('have something done', ég lét gera við bílinn), the idioms láta sem 'pretend' and láta vel 'behave', and the middle látast 'pretend / pass away'.