senda ("to send") is the verb behind every text, email, and parcel, so you will use it daily. It is a regular weak verb with one small twist that confuses learners: the 1st-person singular is sendi in both the present and the past. "I send" and "I sent" are spelled identically — ég sendi — and only context (or a time word like núna "now" vs. í gær "yesterday") tells them apart. The other thing to nail is its ditransitive frame: you send someone something, and Icelandic marks the recipient in the dative and the thing in the accusative, exactly like gefa ("give").
Conjugation
Class: weak, Class 2 (the -di preterite; here the d assimilates so the past looks like the present in some persons). Auxiliary: hafa — ég hef sent "I have sent." The stem send- never changes.
| Principal parts | |
|---|---|
| Infinitive | að senda |
| 1sg present | sendi |
| 1sg past | sendi |
| Supine | sent |
| Person | Present (nútíð) | Past (þátíð) |
|---|---|---|
| ég | sendi | sendi |
| þú | sendir | sendir |
| hann / hún / það | sendir | sendi |
| við | sendum | sendum |
| þið | sendið | senduð |
| þeir / þær / þau | senda | sendu |
| Person | Present subjunctive | Past subjunctive |
|---|---|---|
| ég | sendi | sendi |
| þú | sendir | sendir |
| hann / hún / það | sendi | sendi |
| við | sendum | sendum |
| þið | sendið | senduð |
| þeir / þær / þau | sendi | sendu |
| Non-finite & imperative | |
|---|---|
| Imperative (þú) | sendu |
| Imperative (þið) | sendið! |
| Supine | sent |
| Past participle (m/f/n) | sendur / send / sent |
| Middle voice (miðmynd) | sendast — "to be sent / send each other" |
The ditransitive frame: senda einhverjum eitthvað
The core pattern is senda + recipient (dative) + thing (accusative): senda einhverjum eitthvað ("send someone something"). The recipient — the person who receives — goes in the dative, and the thing sent goes in the accusative. This is the same double-object structure as gefa ("give") and sýna ("show"). English lets you say "send me the file" or "send the file to me"; Icelandic uses the case endings to do that work, so the order is freer but the dative-on-the-recipient is fixed.
Geturðu sent mér myndina í kvöld?
Can you send me the picture tonight?
Ég sendi henni skilaboð en hún svaraði ekki.
I sent her a message but she didn't answer.
Amma sendir okkur alltaf konfekt um jólin.
Grandma always sends us chocolates at Christmas.
Sending messages, email, and parcels
This is the everyday vocabulary you will pair with senda: tölvupóst(ur) "email," skilaboð "a message / text" (always plural in Icelandic), póst(ur) "mail / post," and pakka "a parcel." Note skilaboð is grammatically plural, so it takes plural agreement even for a single text.
Ég er búin að senda þér tölvupóst með öllum upplýsingunum.
I've sent you an email with all the information.
Sendu mér skilaboð þegar þú ert komin heim.
Send me a text when you get home.
senda eftir + dative — "send for"
To send for someone or something — summon it — use senda eftir + dative: senda eftir lækni ("send for a doctor"). The preposition eftir governs the dative here.
Þau urðu að senda eftir lækni um miðja nótt.
They had to send for a doctor in the middle of the night.
The middle voice: sendast
The -st form sendast is the reciprocal/passive: "to be sent" or "to send each other." It is the natural way to describe two people texting back and forth: við sendumst á skilaboðum allan daginn ("we texted each other all day").
Við sendumst á skilaboðum allan daginn.
We texted each other all day long.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ég sendi henni hana mynd.
Incorrect — the recipient is dative (henni) and the thing accusative (mynd), but 'a picture' shouldn't carry an extra pronoun; just senda henni mynd
✅ Ég sendi henni mynd.
I'm sending her a picture.
❌ Sendu fyrir lækni!
Incorrect — 'send for' is senda eftir + dative, not senda fyrir
✅ Sendu eftir lækni!
Send for a doctor!
❌ Ég sendaði þér póst í gær.
Incorrect — senda is a Class-2 verb; the past 1sg is sendi (same as the present), not a regularised -aði
✅ Ég sendi þér póst í gær.
I sent you mail yesterday.
❌ Hún sendi mig bréf.
Incorrect — the recipient must be dative (mér), not accusative (mig)
✅ Hún sendi mér bréf.
She sent me a letter.
Key Takeaways
- sendi / sendir / sendi / sent — a regular weak Class-2 verb; the 1sg is sendi in both present and past (present/past syncretism), so rely on time words.
- Ditransitive: senda einhverjum (dative) eitthvað (accusative) — recipient in the dative, thing in the accusative, just like gefa.
- senda eftir
- dative = "send for / summon."
- skilaboð ("message/text") is always grammatically plural.
- Middle voice sendast = "send each other / be sent."
- Auxiliary is hafa: ég hef sent.
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Start learning Icelandic→Related Topics
- Annotated Text: An Informal EmailA2 — A natural informal email from one friend to another — fully glossed, then unpacked for the colloquial written register: the búinn að resultative perfect (Ég er búinn að flytja), informal openers and sign-offs (Hæ …, Kveðja, Anna), narrative present-and-preterite, and the everyday particles that competitors gloss over.
- The Weak Preterite: -aði, -di, -ði, -tiA2 — How to choose and form the weak past tense — Class-1 -a verbs take -aði (tala → talaði, plural töluðum), Class-2 verbs take the short dental -di/-ði/-ti picked by the preceding sound (reyndi, dæmdi, keypti) — with the full tala paradigm and the 'when in doubt, -aði' default for unknown verbs.